Confectionery Conundrum
by DeliriousAbsol
Summary: A new sweet shop opening doesn't seem all that strange, until it starts putting others out of business with its phenomenal sales. Also, it's impossible to investigate when the shop keepers are on to you. That's why the Chaotix hire Amy - to befriend the store owners and act as intel. But things get even more complicated when feelings are involved...
1. Sugar High

**A/N - Woo new fanfic! =D This can be a bit experimental at times, but I hope the randomness and humour is to your liking =) This is a chaptered fic which will probably be about 10-11 chapters long. I've written 7 so far, so I'm gonna try and upload at least once a week. If weekends are preferable for updates, let me know please =) I may update twice a week if demand is high enough or I feel I can keep up with that.**

 **Little note - the characters are all four years older in this story, so Amy is 17.**

 **Disclaimer - I do NOT own Sonic the Hedgehog or any of its characters!**

Confectionery Conundrum

1 – Sugar High

It seemed so strange. This new little shop had opened in the city, going by the name of Sugar Snow. Their sales sky-rocketed as each day passed. You'd think 'fair enough. A new sweet shop.' But the other shops were suffering badly. Some had even closed down within days of this one opening.

One shop owner though just couldn't accept this. It wasn't that long until the photos started landing on our desk.

Photos of queues, kids flocking outside, and a pretty little leopard girl smiling as she handed out samples of that day's special sweets... a perfectly innocent scene to the naked eye.

"Charmy." Espio gave the bee a sideways glance. "Stop commentating."

"Sorry." Charmy set the little voice recorder back on the desk. "I just thought it would give this investigation more character."

Vector snorted. "All you're doing is making it sound like a mystery novel."

Charmy grinned. "Exactly!"

"Well, we're not getting anywhere with these photos." Espio dropped them haphazardly onto his paperwork and leant back in his chair. "They're starting to suspect us."

"You could try being more stealthy?" the crocodile suggested.

"How much more stealthy can I get? I can't make the camera invisible, Vector."

"Huh. And they won't talk to us."

Charmy raised a hand. "I could -"

"No!" Vector and Espio cut him off.

"Not after last time." Espio closed his eyes and looked away from him. "It took you two days to come down off that 'sugar high'."

Charmy folded his arms and huffed. "You didn't need to use air quotes."  
Vector grunted. "I don't think it was a sugar high."

An image of a screaming Charmy flashed through their minds, followed by a door slamming and the purple chameleon and his crocodile friend locking it hastily. They stood with their backs against it, their faces twisted with terror as the little bee tried to break his way back through the wooden barrier.

 _'I want more sweets! I want more sweets!'_

"I learned an important lesson that day," Charmy spoke into the voice recorder. "As hazy as the memory was, I still remember the screaming, the crying, and the nausea that followed."

"No," said Espio flatly. "I'm almost certain it wasn't a sugar high."

"So what do we do?" Vector asked. "We can't keep going back there. Even the customers will start getting suspicious if we keep hovering outside that shop, and that would be bad if it turns out to just be an innocent little sweet shop with a great sales pitch."

"Yeh. And sending Charmy back in is out the window."

Vector opened one eye to look at Espio. "And following those two leopard girls is... impossible?"

Espio sighed. "They have amazing hearing. It didn't take them long to find out someone was following them, even if they couldn't see me."  
Vector groaned and scratched his head beneath his headphones.

"They've covered all their tracks," Espio explained. "Their supplier seems completely innocent. If we don't find anything soon, this will end up being a dead case, and someone will have to break it to Ginger."

"Ahem." Charmy picked up his voice recorder again. "Ginger is the grand-daughter of the cat who owns the candy shop opposite Sugar Snow."

Espio leant on his hand as he flicked through the photos. Nothing. Nothing was showing up, at least not anything obvious. A silence filled the office, broken by bouts of humming as Charmy leafed through the paperwork.

"I have an idea."

Espio and Charmy looked up at Vector.

"The two little leopards are girls, right?" he said.

"Yes," said Espio. "They are."  
"Then why don't we hire a girl?"

Apple juice came out of Charmy's nose, reminding Espio of why he didn't like drinks on the desk. He quickly rescued the paperwork and shook it dry.

"A girl?" Charmy squeaked. "Who?!"  
Vector shrugged. "I dunno. Who do we know?"

"Well, there's always Sally Acorn," Charmy suggested.

...

Sally rolled across the ground, narrowly dodging the robot's chain of bullets. The robot exploded into shrapnel as a blue blur shot through it.

"Nicole?" she spoke into her handheld computer. "We need to get into this building urgently, but the robots won't stop coming. Have you accessed the database yet?"

"Not yet, Princess Sally."

...

Espio scratched his chin. "I don't know. I think she's too busy heading the Freedom Fighters. Who knows how long this case will take?"  
"How about Bunnie?" asked Vector.

...

Sonic ripped through three of the smaller robots, cutting a path through them. They began to close in, but two of the closer ones exploded as a rocket struck them.

"I've got ya covered, sugar hog!" Bunnie shouted. "You just focus on gettin' to the door!"

...

"Again," said Espio. "She's busy with the Freedom Fighters."

Vector raised his hands in a shrug. "Rouge?"

...

Rouge peered in the window. It wasn't clear to the naked eye, but she knew where the lasers criss-crossed the room. She'd memorised it the night before.

And there, in the middle of the room, stood a Chaos Emerald.

She chuckled. With that, she could make a pretty penny.

...

"Actually..." Vector looked up at the ceiling. "If money or treasure's involved, there's no saying she'll stay on our side."

"How about Cream?" asked Charmy.

...

Smoke pooled into the kitchen from the open oven. Big the Cat stood up and turned to face the little rabbit, the fur on his face singed black. Smoke continued to billow off the pile of charcoal crumbling over the edge of the baking tin.

"Oh no!" Cream covered her mouth with her hands and the Chao next to her copied her. "Sonic's victory cake!"

...

Vector waved a hand in dismissal. "Too young."

"But she bakes a great cake!" said Charmy with a grin.  
Espio crossed Cream's name off the list. "Then that just leaves Amy."

Vector frowned. "When did you start making a list?"

...

"All right!" Amy raised her hammer. "You wanted a fight, you got a fight!"

She brought the massive hammer down towards the octopus robot. It flicked up a tentacle and met her hammer, the impact throwing her off balance. The mallet went soaring over her head as she rolled backwards.

She stared down at her empty hands then looked up at the robot. Its massive tentacle was swinging down towards her... but it struck bare ground as a blue streak whisked her away.

She was set back down again several feet away, and her face turned scarlet as she looked up at the blue hedgehog.

She smiled broadly. "Thanks, Sonic! You saved me!"

"Of course!" He turned to face the octopus robot. "But you should hang on tighter to that hammer, Amy."

...

"She's certainly our more viable option," said Espio. "She helps out with the Freedom Fighters, but she has more time to spare."  
"Do you think she'll help us?" Vector asked.

"All we can do is ask her."  
"All right." Vector pulled out his mobile phone.

"Wait!"

He looked back up at Espio.

"We need to think things over first." Espio picked up a pen and dragged a plane, but crumpled (and a little damp with apple juice) sheet of paper from the haphazard pile on the desk. "What will she do, exactly? How dangerous will this be?"

"We don't know that yet."

"No, but it might _become_ dangerous. We can't just hire the poor girl without ironing out any creases first."

"The girl fights robots for a living!"  
Espio met Vector's glare. Charmy looked from one to the other, sipping loudly at his remaining apple juice.

He picked up his little voice recorder. "Things had grown heated in the office."  
Espio finally looked away from the crocodile. "You have a point. But for the sake of my conscience, let's just go over the basics first."

...

The grass smouldered beneath the robot wreckage. Amy watched as Sonic ran back out of the building, but he didn't look happy. She clutched her hammer in both hands and opened her mouth to speak to him, but Sally beat her to it.

"Is everything okay?"

He shook his head and looked away from her. "Someone got there first."  
"So the emerald's gone?" Sally asked.

Amy frowned. "Who took it?"

"I don't know."

Sally looked down at her computer. "Do you know what happened, Nicole?"

"This is confusing," Nicole replied. "I took the lasers offline only seconds before you came back outside."  
"Well it's gone," said Sonic. "I searched around the place twice. It isn't there."

"Oh, what are we gonna do?" Bunnie asked. "We've been fightin' all night!"

Sally grimaced. "We'll have to track it down." She sighed. "But right now, I think we all need some rest."

"A rest does sound good," said Amy.

Bunnie sighed. "Ah dunno how any of us are gonna rest knowin' that emerald's out there in the wrong hands."  
Tails yawned and stretched loudly. "Yeh. Wow." He slumped and rubbed his eyes. "It's going to be hard to sleep tonight."

Sonic slapped him on the shoulder and steered him towards the Tornado. "Don't worry, bro. I bet Cream's got cake and cocoa waiting for us.

Tails' ears drooped. "And it's going to taste so sweet over the bitterness of this failure."  
"Optimism!" said Amy. "We'll find it!"

"Amy's right," said Sonic. "Positive thinking, Tails! We all did well tonight, despite the outcome. We'll get that emerald!"  
Amy flopped into one of the Tornado's passenger seats and clutched her hammer to her chest.

 _'We all did well tonight.'_

 _'You need to hold tighter to your hammer, Amy.'_

She looked out at the world as it shrank below them, the choppy noise of the Tornado's propeller cutting through the night sky.

She sighed and leant on her hand. _'Am I really that much help?'_

 _..._

 **Please R &R! =D**


	2. You're Hired

**A/N - I know I said I'd update once a week, but I'm making good progress so here's another chapter! =D I might update this twice a week, provided I get enough written.**

 **Disclaimer - I do NOT own Sonic the Hedgehog or any of its characters!**

2 – You're Hired

Twinkling music cut through the colourful array of Amy's dream. She mumbled and rolled over, tugging the duvet over her head to try and block out the irritating sound. But it was too late. The pleasant dream shattered and she blinked her eyes open, bringing the dark room back into focus.

A bright light flickered on her dresser and she pushed herself up, giving the mobile phone a frown as she scooped it up in one hand while rubbing her eyes with the other. It wasn't a number she recognised.

"Who's ringing at this hour?" she croaked before pressing the green 'answer' button. Before she even had the chance to address the caller, a loud voice barked down the phone at her.

"Hello?! Amy?!"

She flinched at the voice and pulled the phone back from her ear. "Yes. It's Amy. Who's this?"

"You sound half asleep! It's Vector!"

"Vector?" She yawned and leant back against her pillow. "How did you get my number?"

"I have the numbers of all the Freedom Fighters for emergencies like this!"

"Emergency?" If she wasn't awake before she was now. She leant forward, staring blankly at the pink heavy curtain on the opposite wall. What kind of emergency would cause the Chaotix to ring _her_?

"Yeh." Vector paused for a moment. "I can't really talk about it over the phone. Can you be here at the office in one hour?"  
She looked over at her little clock. It wasn't even seven in the morning.

"Do you even know what time it is?" she asked him.

"We've... kinda been up all night going over the details."

"Well. Don't worry, I'm up now." She stretched and stifled another yawn. "I'll be there in an hour."

...

Amy looked up at the small, run-down building. A hand-painted sign hung above the door that read 'Chaotix Detective Agency' and below it 'no job is too small'.

It baffled her. Why would they want her to help them? She was fairly certain none of her other friends had received a frantic phone call this morning. Sonic's light was on in his flat when she left the house, and Cream had still been sound asleep.

She approached the door and pressed the buzzer. A loud, electronic screech came out of the intercom and she leapt back with a yell.

"Hello?" It was Charmy's voice that greeted her.

She smiled and placed a hand on the door handle. "It's Amy."

"Yay! Come in!"

The door buzzed and she heard a pop as the lock lifted. It moved easily inward, albeit with a small creak as the hinges complained, and she stepped into the bland, grey hallway. A small flight of stairs that groaned with each step ended at their office. Light leaked out from beneath the closed door and she could hear muffled voices on the other side. She wrung her hands together as she looked up and down at the peeling paintwork.

' _Should I just go in?_ '

She stared at the handle for a moment. What was she meant to do? Just walk in? She didn't work for them, at least not officially. She couldn't just... barge in.

Instead, she gave the door a polite knock.

It opened sharply and Vector's large face grinned down at her.

"You could've just walked in!" he said.

"I... I didn't want to be rude."

She moved past him into the office and looked around at the room. Charmy was sat at a table slurping a large milkshake. He gave her an energetic wave. Espio sat with his feet up on the desk watching her as she stood by the now closed door.

"So... what can I...?" she was cut off as Vector ushered her forwards.

"Sit! Sit! We'll explain everything."

She found herself plonked in a seat beside the desk.

"So!" He dragged a chair across the wooden floor and fell into it opposite her. "We need your help with this mission we're looking into, see?"  
"Erm..." She looked over at Charmy who was slurping his milkshake noisily through a straw, then at Espio who eyed her for a moment then scooped up a small handful of photos.

"You've likely heard of this new sweet shop?" Espio handed her a photo of a dainty little shop with the sign 'Sugar Snow' in elegant blue lettering.

"Yes, I've heard of this." She stared down at the photo. "Has something happened to this shop?"  
"It's more about what's happened to the ones around it." Espio folded his hands behind his head and lent back in his seat. "Many of them have closed down, and one lady has hired us to find out why this shop is so oddly successful."  
"And why I went mad after eating sweets!" Charmy chimed in.

"I'd think that was from the sugar," said Amy.

The looks on Vector and Espio's faces told her they'd beg to differ.

Vector rested on his elbows and leaned in to her. "The thing is, we've been tryin' to find out what's going on with this shop. Why are they so successful? Why did Charmy have a twenty-four hour 'sugar high'?"

"Again with the air quotes!" squeaked the little bee.

"We can't find any evidence." Vector threw his hands in the air and sat back from her, folding them across his chest.

Amy waited for a moment for any of them to add to this. It seemed like a rather sudden place to stop. When nothing came, she looked at each of them then back down at the perfectly innocent-looking photo.

"Maybe there isn't any," she said. "Maybe it's just a shop."

Vector groaned and rubbed at his temples.

"That doesn't explain what happened to Charmy," said Espio. "Or the massive queue outside the shop every day, usually made up of the same customers."

"Kids and adults alike," added the crocodile.

"We've searched around the place daily since we were given this mission," Espio went on. "Taken photos, even tried to get inside – although only Charmy really succeeded there. The problem is, they suspect us now."

...

The orange leopard turned to her white-furred sister and nodded to the doorway.

"That creepy crocodile's back."  
Vector grimaced. "Drat!"

The snow leopard whispered into her sister's ear.

"That little bee's back."  
Charmy dropped the sweet he was holding. "Drat!"

The snow leopard tapped her sister's arm and pointed out of the window.

"That floating camera's back."

Espio lost his focus and materialised, dropping the instant camera. "Drat!"

...

Vector frowned at Amy. "As you can see, we can't keep going back there."

"Well, what do you want me to do?" she asked.

"Befriend them," said Espio. "They don't know you. They have no idea you'll be working for us."

Amy's jaw dropped. " _Befriend them?!_ "

"Yeh!" Vector exclaimed. "You're a girl, right? Get close to them. Gain their trust and scout them out."

"I... I don't know if I can do that..."

"It'll be easy! Just use your girly charm. Talk to them about... girly things!"

"Girly things?" Amy repeated slowly. "Like what, exactly?"

"I dunno." He scratched under his headphones as he looked to Espio, but the chameleon just shrugged. "Things girls like. Like... Hats? Or... scarves, or something."

"Hats?" Amy blinked. "And scarves? What makes you think girls talk about hats and scarves?"

Vector looked down at her and shrugged. "You wear hats and scarves, right?"

"Yes, but so do snowmen!"  
The three detectives exchanged glances.

"I don't know if I'm going to be of much help." She looked back down at the photo. "There's this mission the Freedom Fighters are taking on, and last night..."

She trailed off as the previous night came back to her. The octopus robot knocking away her hammer. Sonic having to save her. Someone unseen beating them to the chaos emerald.

Nicole had only taken the lasers offline seconds before Sonic had returned to them.

If he hadn't had to save her, if she had managed to deal with that robot, if he hadn't had to mop up her mess, he might have got there first.

The Freedom Fighters were probably better off doing that mission without her.

She pursed her lips together and looked up at the Chaotix. "You know what? I _will_ help you."  
Vector grinned widely and Espio gave a small smile as he leant back in his chair.

"Yay!" Charmy leapt from his seat. "We'll be able to solve this mystery after all!"

...

 _'Now, I want to go over a few things with you first,' said Espio. 'We have no idea if these girls are dangerous or not.'_

Amy turned the corner onto West Street, where the little sweet shop stood. A few people stood outside the shop, children tugging on their parents sleeves as they tried to drag them towards the door, while others stood nibbling on the freebies handed out by a pretty orange leopard in a frilly yellow dress with a white lace trim.

 _'They seem perfectly innocent at first glance, but the sweets here sell oddly well. Enough so to arouse suspicion. We thought it might be addictive in some way, so we sent some samples off to the lab. However, they came back clean. When Charmy had that reaction to them, we had a doctor check him over. He couldn't find any trace of anything ominous in his blood sample.'_

The leopard looked up when she saw Amy approach the shop, and she gave her a warm smile.

"Hi there! Would you like to try our special home-made truffles?"

 _'But I do want you to be extra careful, Amy. Do not, under any circumstances, consume any sweets. If you need to, take some to go.'_

Amy returned her smile. "Thank you. I'd like to take some home with me, if you don't mind?"  
The girl chuckled and held out the tray. "Go on. Try one."

"I don't have much of a sweet tooth for chocolate, but I'll take one back for my friend." She took one from the tray and wrapped it in a clean napkin in her bag. "She's always baking for me. I'm sure she'd appreciate the gesture."  
The leopard closed her eyes in a smile. "I'm sure she would! We have some special deals in store today only, if you'd like to buy her anything?"  
"I'll have a look, thank you."  
The bell above the door tinkled gently as Amy entered. The shop was filled with customers stuffing sweets into paper bags, and the snow leopard behind the counter was busy weighing their selections and serving ice creams.

Amy's mouth watered involuntarily as she looked over the ice cream selection, and then she spotted the soft serve machine behind the counter.

Espio's warning rang loud and clear in her mind, and she tore herself away from the ice cream stand.

The Chaotix were right. Nothing in the store looked suspicious. It looked just like your standard busy sweet shop. The three other sweet shops around it looked like they'd simply given up on the competition and closed down. One of them had already been selected to become a book store, while the other two were still boarded up with 'to let' signs nailed to them.

"Hi there!"  
Amy looked round at the snow leopard. Despite being busy, she'd taken the opportunity to address her.

"Do you need any help?" she asked.

"Yes." Amy had to think fast. She looked over at the vibrant selection of jelly sweets, various chocolates and truffles, and a colourful wall of cookies. "I'm looking for... gum drops."  
The snow leopard grinned. "Oh, I'm sure we can help you there! Sasha!"

The orange leopard peered in at the door.

"This hedgehog here would like some gum drops!"

Sasha smiled at her and entered the shop, setting down her plate of truffles which were immediately swarmed upon by the customers. Nevertheless, she didn't seem to mind in the slightest. She reached up onto a shelf and pulled down two packets of colourful sweets.

"Would you like strawberry or mixed?"  
Amy took the strawberry pack, her mouth watering again.

Sasha closed her eyes and chuckled. "Excellent choice! You know what, I think we can do you the second pack as well for half price. How does that sound?"

"That sounds great!"

Amy looked from the leopard's smiling face to the sweets and back. Was this how it was going to be every day? Coming in to buy sweets? Is this how she'd 'befriend' these two girls? Surely she'd just end up becoming a normal, regular customer? Just another face the shop owners grew to recognise.

She'd need to think fast. What would be the best thing to do?

"Actually... I'm not just here for gumdrops."

Sasha's blue eyes widened slightly. "Oh?"

"No, I..." Amy met her gaze and took in a small breath. "I'd like a job."  
The leopard's face reflected the shock that echoed in Amy's mind. Had she actually just asked that? A job?!

A large smile spread across Sasha's face. "Oh really? I think we can sort that out for you. When are you available?"

Amy could almost see Charmy appearing in a thought bubble above her head, speaking into his voice recorder.

' _And that was how Amy Rose started working for the suspects._ '

...

 **Please R &R! =D**


	3. Bugged

**A/N - I wanted to update this yesterday and kept forgetting! (facedesk)**

 **Thanks for all reviews, faves and follows! =D**

 **Disclaimer - I do NOT own Sonic the Hedgehog or any of its characters!**

3 – Bugged

"You're working for them?!" Vector actually dropped his sandwich. " _Working for them?!"_

Amy wrung her hands together. "Uhm... yes."

Vector slammed a hand into his face with a groan.

"Don't despair, Vector," said Espio, not taking his eyes off Amy. "This could actually go in our favour."  
"Favour?" Vector removed his hand to look at him. "How does _this_ work in our favour? She's meant to be working for _us_!"

"It works greatly in our favour," explained the chameleon. "It's actually quite a genius move if you think about it."

Amy looked from the confused crocodile to Espio and back.

"We now have someone on the inside," he explained. "She can get close to the shop owners, learn their secrets and see if there's anything suspicious going on behind the scenes."

Charmy grinned. "Kinda like having back-stage tickets to a concert!"

"Hmm." Vector crossed his arms and leant back in his chair. "It sounds better when you put it that way."

"Yes. But we need to establish some new ground rules." Espio fixed his yellow eyes on Amy's green ones, which for some reason greatly unnerved her. "Every day, you report here before and after your shifts. That way you can report to us everything you've found out, no matter how meaningless you think it might be."  
She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "But... why would I need to come here _before_ my shift? I won't have anything to tell you."

"They have your contact details, don't they?"

"Yes?"

"Well then. If they call you, or drop by your house, we'll want to know that too."

Vector closed his eyes and shrugged. "Sounds perfectly reasonable to me."

Amy felt herself shrink into her seat. This felt like a sudden invasion of personal privacy. She wouldn't be surprised if they started bugging her rooms next.

"We'll also need to bug your rooms," said Espio flatly. "Just to be on the safe side."

She flinched and looked away from him. There it was. No more singing while she did the dishes now.

He looked over at his friend. "Is there anything you want to add, Vector? Anything you think we've missed?"

The crocodile grunted and glanced up at the ceiling in thought. "It wouldn't hurt to tap her phone."

"No!" Amy's hand went to her bag. "No, there's no need for that. I'm reporting here every day, like you said."

Vector frowned at her. "Yeh, but what if you forget anything?"

"I won't! I'll write it all down if I have to. Besides, they might not even phone me!"

"Vector's right," said Espio. "It would cover all corners. You can't make notes if you're out on the street."

"But... I use this for personal phone calls!"

A cold feeling of dread washed through her. Any phone calls she might have with Cream would be overheard by the Chaotix. No more talking about her crush on Sonic, no more confiding their problems to one another over the phone. If it were tapped, she may as well just throw it in the bin.

Espio closed his eyes and sighed. "All right. Maybe we should let this one go. It's clearly upset her."

"At least wear a wire tap," said Vector, a little exasperated.

A wire tap... it wasn't as bad as having her phone calls listened into. She let out a small sigh of relief.

"Can I at least turn it off when I'm not at work?" She caught the raised eyebrows from all three detectives. "I'll switch it on whenever they call me, or, for some reason, show up at my door."

"Okay." Vector raised his hands in defeat. "I can appreciate a girl's privacy. We'll also leave one room free from wire taps." He pointed a finger at her and narrowed his eyes. "But if you miss _anything_ important..."

She nodded. "I promise I won't."

"I also hope you're aware it will be impossible to bug the shop," Vector explained. "It's also probably not a good idea to wear a wire tap while you're working, since if they find it I'd dread to think what might happen."

Amy gulped.

"So that makes your after shift visits crucial to this investigation. Capiche?"

Her eyes went from each of the Chaotix in turn. Charmy was smiling at her, while Espio watched her silently, Vector's expression contrasting his greatly as he impatiently awaited a response.

"Yes," she stammered. "I understand."

"Good!" Vector closed his eyes and relaxed his posture. "Charmy, hand her a wire tap. As soon as you've got it on, Amy, you can go."  
She took the wire tap from the bee and stared at it for a moment before clipping it to the lapel of her spring jacket. It looked like nothing more than a little microphone. Once it was in place, she stood up and moved over to the door. Her hand had barely reached the handle when Espio's voice froze her.

"You're bold, Amy."

She looked back at him. He was still watching her, sat with his feet on the desk and his arms crossed behind his head.

"We asked you to get close to those girls and you come back here with a job. I don't think any of us would have come up with that idea as quickly as you did. Well done."

She felt her face heat up and she looked away from him. "Thank you."

"No. Thank you. See you tomorrow."

"Aye," said Vector. "See you tomorrow, Amy."

She let the door close behind her, catching a glimpse of Charmy waving wildly with a cry of, "Bye!"

When she was back out on the street she leant back against the wall and placed a hand to her chest. Her fingers brushed the microphone and she felt her blood turn cold.

She really was working for the Chaotix now, and they'd be listening in to everything she said. They hadn't given her a time, but it wouldn't be long until they showed up to bug her home. The next day she'd be spying on a little sweet shop that looked as innocent as any other sweet shop. Despite all that, it felt oddly dangerous.

She was going to feel very embarrassed and foolish if it turned out there was absolutely nothing wrong.

...

"All you need to do is put this stock on the shelves."

Amy stifled a yawn as she picked up a handful of chocolate bars. The snow leopard stood beside her, eyeing her up and down with a look of concern.

"Are you all right?" she asked. "You look positively exhausted."

"I'm sorry, Clara. I didn't sleep well last night."

"Oh dear." The snow leopard's blue eyes widened and she covered her mouth with one hand. "Are you an insomniac?"

Amy grimaced. She couldn't exactly tell the girl she'd been lay awake a huge chunk of the night, staring at the ceiling as she processed everything that had happened the day before. She'd finally got to sleep in the early hours of the morning, but at five am she was awoken rather abruptly by the Chaotix banging on her door. The three detectives had shown up to place wire taps all over the house – except the bathroom, reflecting Vector's 'one room' promise – before she could set off to go to work.

This hadn't impressed her. She didn't need to be at the shop until five hours later, and she was aware she looked like a wreck. The Chaotix, however, didn't look remotely tired. She wondered if they ever slept, or if they even needed to. That was two days in a row they'd woken her up now.

She looked up at Clara. "No, I... I just had a rough night. That's all."

"Oh, well." The snow leopard smiled warmly. "I can recommend some malt if you'd like it? That's what I use when I'm having trouble relaxing."

Amy smiled back. "Thank you, but I think I'll be fine. I'll just make sure I get to bed early."

That idea went straight out of the window.

The shop closed at six and Amy had to go straight to the Chaotix office, as per her instructions.

Vector sat reading over her contract for the third time while Espio polished his shuriken and Charmy doodled something in a notepad. She checked her watch, then the clock on their wall, for what must have been the tenth time since she'd arrived. An entire hour had passed, and they'd been sat in silence since she'd handed them a copy of her contract with Sugar Snow.

Neither girl had objected to giving her a copy. It was pretty basic, as far as she was concerned. Whatever Vector expected to find hidden away in that wad of black and white paper was a mystery.

Well... they _were_ trying to _solve_ a mystery. She may as well add her contract to that list.

Vector 'hmm'd', not for the first time, stirring Amy's hopes. She looked up at him, but he still had his muzzle buried into her contract. Her heart sank as she realised he was back at the first page.

"Is there a problem?" she finally asked.

He flipped over the page. "Frustratingly, no."

Espio glanced over at him. "I think you're looking for something that isn't there, Vector."  
"There's one thing that stands out, but Amy told us that already." He placed the contract open on the desk and directed Espio and Charmy to one of the paragraphs. "Just the agreement that employees don't consume their sweets while working."  
"And as strange as it is, it seems perfectly reasonable since they're intended for the customers," said Espio. "I mean, if you work for a book store you don't stand reading their books while working, do you?"

"Yeh, but it's a sweet shop! It's hardly an inconvenience, is it?"

"No, but we can't hold that against them." Espio sat back in his chair, returning to his shuriken polishing. "It does arouse suspicion though."

Vector sighed. "I think we should send all those sweets off to the lab."

"I disagree. It's expensive, and they found nothing in the last batch."

Amy's eyes wandered over to the table where the gum drops and truffle she'd brought back had been left. They were now fastened in a clear plastic bag marked 'evidence?' Yes. They even scrawled the question mark.

"I think we should call it a night," Vector grunted.

Amy clasped her hands together and whispered "Oh, please!" under her breath.

The detectives looked up at her.

"What was that?" Espio asked.

Vector was fixing her with a frown, and Charmy had looked up from his doodle.

"I think she said 'oh please'," said the bee.

Amy ran a hand over her quills. "I'm sorry. I'm just very tired, and I'd like to get home to bed."  
Vector crossed his arms and nodded. "That's reasonable. You go home. We won't wake you up this time."

"Unless it's necessary," added Espio.

"Like a coffee emergency," Charmy chipped in.

When Amy finally got home that evening, it was close to eight. A little too late to be having dinner. A quick sandwich was all she had before falling into bed.

She made the wise decision to switch off her phone, making a mental note to check her voice mails in the morning.

However, her mind wandered to the little device hanging behind her bedroom door. Did she snore? Talk in her sleep? She had no idea.

Much to her displeasure, she found herself watching the hours roll by on her clock.

...

 **Please R &R! =D**


	4. The Test Subject

**A/N - Thanks for all reviews, faves and follows! =D I'm glad people find this funny XD I am trying to keep it as such!**

 **Disclaimer - I do NOT own Sonic the Hedgehog or any of its characters!**

4 – The Test Subject

One Week Later...

Amy had no idea how slow progress could go when looking into an investigation. She'd just finished what felt like the longest week of her life. As she ran the trolley back into the store room, she grabbed her bag from the little locker and bade a cheerful farewell to Sasha and Clara.

At least, that's what she intended to do, since it was the same thing she did every day. However, the 'farewell' died on her lips in the form of a 'fareweh...' as her emerald eyes fell on the form of a young rabbit browsing the chocolate shelf with a little Chao floating beside her head.

All alarms went off in her mind as she judged the distance from her friend to the door, tried to ascertain how long it would take for her to scoot her out unnoticed, but it was fruitless. Clara was already throwing recommendations at her as Sasha watched them like an owl from the cash register.

"Cream?" Amy finally squeaked out.

The little rabbit looked over her shoulder at her. "Oh! Hi Amy! I came to meet you!"

Cheese closed his eyes and waved enthusiastically while Cream looked around at the expanse of sweets, which right now, to Amy, felt like the little rabbit was sizing up a gigantic, sugar coated booby trap.

"This is a lovely shop!" she exclaimed. "I can't believe I've never been in here!"

Clara looked up at Amy, her blue eyes sparkling. "This adorable rabbit is a friend of yours?"

"Yes," said Amy. "A good friend."  
The snow leopard looked back down at Cream and smiled. "Well, she's welcome here any time! In fact, I think we can do you a little deal, since your a friend of Amy's!"  
"A deal?!" Cream's eyes became impossibly large. "Really?! You don't have to do that for me."

Clara covered her mouth and chuckled. "Of course! You and your Chao friend are so adorable, how can I not?"  
Sasha leant forwards on the cash register and gave Cream a warm smile. "We can certainly do you a deal. Pick any two items you like, and we'll only charge you for one."

Amy watched as Cream eagerly reached for a chocolate bar. She had to think fast, which was something she was becoming rapidly good at. She reached into her bag as she trotted over to the rabbit.

"I'll buy them for you! My treat."

"Oh, Amy!" Cream gasped. "You don't have to do that."

"Nonsense. You came all the way out here to meet me, it's the least I can do."

"All right!" Cream clapped her hands together and beamed. "Then you pick the second one, and we'll eat them while we watch a movie together tonight."

Amy jolted. "Tonight? Erm..."

"You're free, aren't you? I haven't seen you all week."

Cream's brown eyes widened as she peered at Amy over her clasped hands. Cheese let out a sad little noise as he imitated her.

It was too much. Amy felt her heart would break at any moment. It wasn't that she didn't want to spend time with Cream, she did, but she couldn't exactly walk home with her, and she couldn't tell her why either.

"Okay, sure." She forced a smile. "We can watch a movie together."

Cream and Cheese cheered and span back to face the shelf.

"Okay, Amy! Pick something! I know you like strawberry!"  
"Then you pick me a strawberry one!"

Cream reached up and grabbed a large bar in a pink wrapper. It apparently had chunks of strawberry mixed in amongst the milky chocolate, which the thought alone caused Amy's mouth to water immediately. Nevertheless, she knew she couldn't eat it.

She took both chocolate bars from Cream and paid Sasha at the cash register.

The leopard girl smiled at them as she handed Cream a paper bag. "I hope you both enjoy your Saturday night. We'll see you back here on Monday, Amy."

"You will." Amy gave her a small smile. "See you Monday."

She followed Cream out of the shop, and Clara waved at them as she dragged the shutter down over the door.

"Here." Amy reached for the paper bag. "I'll put them in by bag, okay?"

"Oh no," said Cream. "It's fine. I don't mind carrying them."

Amy tried to avoid visibly flinching. This was going terribly.

"So what shall we watch?" Cream skipped beside Amy, swinging the bag back and forth. "I vote for something girly with lots of romance and a tissue box handy."

"Sounds great. But, Cream..."

The rabbit looked at her and inclined her head on one side.

"I need to stop by somewhere first. So I'll meet you back at my flat, okay?"

"Oh? Where are you going?"

"I just need to see someone first."

Cream raised an eyebrow. "Is it Sonic?"

Amy felt her face flush. "No! It's not, I-"

"Because he has a girlfriend."

"Chao chao!" added Cheese.

"I know, I-" She looked away from Cream and sighed. "I'll... explain later."

"Okay."

Cream's high voice came out in a sad sigh and she brought her skipping to a slow stroll. They walked in silence for a while, a painful silence that was made all the more painful as Amy's mind whirled while she tried to find something to say that would console her friend.

She had nothing.

"Is this what you've been doing every day?" Cream asked.

Amy looked up at her, but the rabbit was staring at her feet as she walked.

"Going to some secret place?" she went on. "Because every time I've tried to ring you, you've not answered, and you've text me quite late at night. You're hardly ever in any more, and even the Freedom Fighters can't get hold of you."

Amy didn't know what to say. It was true she'd not exactly had any time. All her evenings had been eaten up by meetings with the Chaotix, most of them pointlessly long and consisting of sandwiches and bickering between the three detectives while she just sat and watched while trying to find a sandwich that wasn't eighty percent mayonnaise.

"Sonic's worried," said Cream. "He thinks you've left us."

Amy gasped. "I've not left you! I've just been very busy."

Cream looked up at her, but her jovial gait hadn't returned. "I've got a lot to tell you. Please hurry back. Okay?"

Amy nodded and gave her a cheerful smile. "I'll do my best! But in the meantime, promise me you will not eat those chocolate bars."  
Cream closed her eyes and beamed. "I'll save them for you!"  
When they reached the fork in the road, they waved and parted ways. Amy had to go left to the office, while Cream made a beeline for her flat.

With each step towards the little run-down building, Amy began to silently seethe. If their suspicions were correct, Cream had just gone to her flat – alone – with two bars of potentially dangerous chocolate.

And Amy had not been able to tell her a thing. She'd not been able to warn her of the risks.

The door buzzed and let her in. She hadn't even heard who answered. As she pushed the door of the office open, the three faces that looked back at her from the desk slowly changed to wear identical expressions of fear.

Charmy looked up at the other two. "I think she's mad."  
"Mad?" Amy closed the door a little too harshly behind her, causing the little bee to leap behind Vector with a squeal. "I've just sent a ten year old to my flat with two bars of Sugar Snow chocolate!"  
They stared back at her, mouths agape.

"Well..." Espio cleared his throat. "That wasn't a very good idea."  
She dropped her bag onto the worn leather sofa and flopped down next to it, crossing her arms across her chest.

"No. But the reason I did is because I couldn't very well tell her that it might be dangerous."  
"Argh." Vector scratched his head. "Is this Cream by any chance?"

"Yes."

He grimaced and looked away from her.

Espio's golden eyes flicked back and forth from Amy and Vector. She heard the kettle flick on in the background, signalling Charmy had decided to do his best to alleviate the tension by making some tea.

"Can I ask?" Amy swivelled in her seat to face the two detectives. "How certain are you that there is actually something wrong with these sweets? If your lab testing came back clear, and all you are going off is Charmy's reaction and rather long queues, then your suspicion is highly flawed."

Espio and Vector exchanged glances. From the looks on their faces, Amy wondered if they were silently urging the other to speak. She could feel her quills starting to stand on end again.

"I'm sorry, Amy," said Espio, who had clearly lost the wordless war. "It isn't all we're basing it off. I mean, how many people do you know who buy sweets every day? Before work, before school, sometimes several times in one day, the same customers would return to that shop."

"I know," she said. "I work there."

"And you don't find it suspicious?"

"It's not solid evidence. What I want to know is, is that chocolate really dangerous? Have you tested any on yourselves?"

Vector frowned. "Yeesh, Amy! After what we saw Charmy go through, we ain't willing to put ourselves through that."

"Then I'll try it."

Both Espio and Vector almost fell off their chairs. Their jaws dropped, and somewhere in the background a teacup shattered onto a tiled floor.

"You can't be serious?" Espio gasped.

"I'm very serious." She leant onto the arm of the sofa. "I want to be one hundred percent certain there is something wrong with the sweets at that shop. Then I can avoid putting my good friend at risk!"

The two detectives blinked.

"I also want to be able to tell her why I've not been answering my phone recently, and why I've not been at home. And just so you know, she's in my flat right now which is bugged so you'll be able to hear everything. I want to tell her that too."

Vector stammered. "But... This is a secret mission, Amy."

"I understand that, but it's affecting my relationship with Cream and the rest of the Freedom Fighters."

She watched Espio and Vector exchange a wordless war again.

"Look." She stood up and moved over to the desk. "I'm not saying I want to tell everyone. I just want to tell Cream. She's ten. She doesn't understand why I'm not around when I have been for the past four years. I'm sure she'll keep it secret if she knows it needs to be."

Vector sighed and adjusted his headphones. "All right. Tell the tyke. But if she lets it out..."

She nodded at his warning glare.

"Thank you. She won't tell anyone, I can assure you."

Well, she now felt a lot lighter. Hopefully she could now enjoy a nice, relaxed evening with her friend. She turned to retrieve her bag from the sofa.

"Amy." Espio's golden gaze froze her to the spot. "Make sure neither of you has any of that chocolate. If you want to be a test subject for it, then bring it here tomorrow. We'll talk about it then."  
Test subject... She had to admit the thought made her feel rather uneasy. She gave him a small smile and a quick nod.

"We'll be talkin' about it ourselves first," growled Vector. "I can't say I'm too happy about it."

"Okay. I'll be here by ten." She paused in the doorway and looked back at them. None of them were watching her now, engaged in a conversation of hushed whispers. "Thank you."

Vector gave her a dismissive wave. "Don't worry about it. Hurry home to your friend."

She let the door close behind her and skipped out onto the street. The 'hurry home' would have felt a lot warmer if it hadn't been for the deep, burning worry she was now bearing for her young friend.

...

"So... let me get this straight." Cream counted the topics off on her fingers. "You've been meeting up with the Chaotix because they hired you to help them with an investigation."

Amy strolled back into the living room from the adjoining kitchenette with two glasses of cream soda. "That's right."  
"Which means you've not left the Freedom Fighters?"

"No. I'm still one of the Freedom Fighters."

Cream took her glass and gave Amy a fond smile as she sipped at it. "So, what is this investigation? Can you tell me?"

"That's what I want to talk to you about." She gave the rabbit an imploring look. "But you must promise not to tell anyone. Okay?"

"I promise!"

Cheese squeaked as he copied Cream, placing a paw on his chest.

Amy looked over at the paper bag on the coffee table, lying beside an overflowing tub of popcorn. "We're investigating the sweet shop I work at."

Cream choked on her soda and wiped a paw across her nose. "The sweet shop?!"

"Yes. You see, they think there might be something wrong with their produce. Which means we can't eat any of it."  
"Oh." Cream slumped and placed her glass on the floor. "Really? What's wrong with it?"

"We don't know yet."

"Then why did you buy it?"

"To cover our tracks. It would be suspicious if I stopped you. If there is anything wrong, they'd cotton on to the fact I'm aware of it, and it might get us in trouble."

Cream looked over at the paper bag. "Then we should throw it away!"  
"That's not necessary. I'm taking it with me tomorrow." She glanced around the room. "Another thing I should tell you is, the Chaotix have bugged the house. So they can hear us right now."

Cream looked as though she wanted to scream 'what?' at the top of her lungs, but nothing but silence came out of her mouth. She turned her head frantically as she took in every corner of the living room. The little Chao span around in circles and started looking beneath picture frames and examining the light fittings.

"It's okay, Cheese," Amy told him. "You don't need to worry, it's just a precaution."  
"Oh dear." Cream fell back in her seat. "I'm a little worried about what to talk about now."

"What do you mean?"

Cream shrugged. "What if we bore them?"

"I don't think our conversation is really any of their business. The bugs are only here to make sure we're not in any danger. They're probably having their own conversation as we speak." Amy flicked on the DVD player and the opening trailers began to play. "Let's get this movie started."

Cream helped herself to a handful of popcorn. "It is interesting, though."  
"The investigation?"

"No. The fact you're helping the Chaotix." The little rabbit looked at her. "I mean, the last time you saw really them was at your sixteenth birthday party. You've not had much contact with them for over a year now."

Amy huddled into her seat and sipped at her soda. "Yeh. I'm not sure why though."

"Well..." Cream swirled her drink around her glass. "I doubt it's anything to do with you bailing on your own party..."

Amy flinched. Despite how long ago it was, the memory was still pretty fresh. Since that epic disaster of a party, she'd decided to keep her birthday celebrations low key. It was the night she found out Sonic and Sally were an item. After uncovering that little secret, she decided to leave well before it ended. Quite abruptly. She'd ran back home in tears. The chain of text messages she got when she switched her phone on the next day were indication enough that her friends had noticed her sudden absence, but how long they'd been looking for her after that, she'd no idea.

Knuckles had made a rather bitter joke that the Chaotix had considered filing a missing persons investigation until they discovered her light on during the walk back home.

Cream leant forwards and grabbed the popcorn tub. "Ooh, the movie's starting!"

As the jaunty opening theme kicked in, Amy quickly rejoined reality. The topic was dropped, changed instead to follow the plot of the movie. She spent the majority of it just giggling away with her friends.

...

"Sixteenth, eh?" Vector leant back in his seat and folded his arms. "I don't think any of us are gonna forget that night. Right, Espio?" He glanced up from the wire tap recorder to look at the chameleon.

Espio grunted. "You were the one who wanted to file a missing persons report."

"Only cos you were worried sick!"

"Well, who keeps their relationship secret?"

"Sonic didn't want to ruin her birthday," said Vector bluntly. "They'd only been together a week."

Espio leant on his hand and flicked absently through the photos. "If they'd worried that much, they'd had been more careful. Poor girl."

"Really? Weren't you the one who wanted to tell her about it the whole night?"

A chill ran down Espio's spine and he dropped the photo back onto the desk.

Charmy pointed to the recording deck. "They can't hear us, right?"

"No," Vector answered. He looked back at Espio. "If I remember rightly, you spent most of the party staring at her."

Espio felt his face heat up. "I... I... what...?"

"I thought you'd got over that." A huge grin spread over Vector's face. "Maybe that's why you hired her for this case?"

Espio fired him a glare. "You're being ridiculous, Vector!"

"Am I?"  
The chameleon grimaced and stared absently back down at the photos. Vector wasn't wrong. Amy had always come across as a childish girl with a temper and an obsessive crush on Sonic, but seeing her at that party, happily chatting to her friends, any previous perceptions had gone flying out of the window. She only turned to mush whenever Sonic was nearby, but managed to regain her composure once he'd moved on elsewhere. Having known about the blue hedgehog's relationship with Princess Sally, Espio had wanted to reveal it to Amy, to snap her out of it and spare her feelings, since the longer Sonic left it the harder it might be.

Later, she suddenly vanished from the party.

There'd been no sign of a struggle, no evidence of a Piko Piko Hammer rampage, just a missing coat and bag and a light on in her flat.

And a shaken Sonic and Sally who'd witnessed the pink hedgehog flee from the party in a streak of tears.

Espio couldn't help fearing the worst. He'd wanted to go into her flat and make sure she was okay, but instead they decided to just wait for a response to Knuckles' text, which came through the next day.

"Oh, this is painful." Vector rubbed his temples. "They're just babblin' on about some 'cute' actor. I wanna listen to my music again."  
Charmy yawned widely. "It's gonna be a long night."

A series of taps shook the window, and the three detectives leapt from their seats.

"Someone's at the window," Vector gasped.

Espio blinked a few times as he tried to process this. "But... we're two floors up!"

Another rap reverberated through the glass pane, and a shadowy face surrounded by dreads peered in at them from behind a layer of grease and dirt.

Charmy chuckled and flew over to it, wrenching the window open.

"Hiya, Knuckles!"  
The echidna landed on the bare, wooden floor.

"Good grief, Knuckles." Vector crossed his arms and frowned. "Why can't you use the door like everybody else?"

Knuckles dusted himself down. "Because the buzzer wasn't working the last time." He pointed a fist to the window. "Why can't you hire a cleaner once in a while?"

"Too expensive." The crocodile flopped back into his seat. "What brings you here anyway?"  
"I wanted to see what you guys were up to lately." Knuckles pulled up a rickety chair beside Espio and followed the muffled female voices to the recording deck. "You're investigating something? Wait..." His brow furrowed. "Isn't that Amy and Cream?"  
"Yeh, Amy's helpin' us with this one." He glanced back up at the echidna. "You hardly ever pop in for a visit. Don't you normally spend all day guarding the master emerald?"

"I've got it covered. Besides. I'm intrigued now." Knuckles crossed his arms. "Why do you have Amy helping you? What's going on?"

"We needed a girl," said Charmy.

"Here." Vector handed Knuckles a sheet of paper. "I wrote it all down in case I ever needed to explain it. Cos, you know, I can't be bothered explaining it all right now."

Knuckles scoffed. "That's efficient." He frowned at the rumpled paper. "Did you ever attend a hand writing class?"

"Why are you really here, Knuckles?" Espio asked. "Because I hardly think an investigation into a sweet shop would warrant a visit from you."

"Okay." Knuckles dropped Vector's explanatory note. "I helped the Freedom Fighters retrieve a chaos emerald off Rouge a couple of days ago. She'd tried to flog it to Eggman, and he kicked off since he didn't want to buy it. After we trashed his robots, she vanished, emerald and all. It took a little while to track her down. So... I thought I'd pop in and visit you before heading back to Angel Island."

Vector shrugged. "Seems perfectly reasonable."  
"So, you're investigating a sweet shop," Knuckles said slowly as he scanned over the note once more. "Charmy went bonkers after eating some of their produce, and now Amy is testing some for you tomorrow?"  
The three detectives nodded, muttering 'yes,' 'that's right,' 'that's the one.'

"Using Amy as a test subject?!" Knuckles folded his arms and frowned. "I don't like this. I think I'm going to stick around and make sure you idiots don't mess up."

Charmy pulled out his little voice recorder.

"Things began to escalate, and the plot started to twist. Suddenly Knuckles was helping us. What exactly was going on? It's safe to say there's a little something for everyone here – mystery, friendship, romance-"

"Charmy, please!" Espio reached out and grabbed the recorder. "Put it away."

...

 **Please R &R! =D**


	5. A Jigsaw With Missing Pieces

**A/N - I'm trudging through chapter 10 atm, with another fanfic idea screaming at me to plan and write. Hopefully I'll have this done before long! I'm aiming for 12 chapters, but it may be a little more. We'll see =)**

 **Disclaimer - I own nothing in this fanfic!**

5 – A Jigsaw With Missing Pieces

Eleven forty-five.

Amy burst into the Chaotix's office, rather out of breath. She closed the door behind her, trying to regain her composure as best she could, but she was painfully aware that her face was flushed and her quills were a little out of place.

"I'm so sorry!" she gasped as she flopped into the sofa. "My alarm didn't go off. I think at some point over night I must have knocked my clock off the dresser, because it was on the floor and the battery had rolled under the wardrobe, and my phone was off, so-"

"We've been trying to call you for the past hour and a half," grunted Vector.

She grimaced. "I know."

"Left several voice mails."

"I know. I'm sorry."

"It's fine, you're here now at least." The crocodile scrawled something down that Amy couldn't see from the sofa. "We'll need you to stay two hours longer. Wanna make sure we get enough time in with these tests."

"So I'm doing the tests?" Amy clutched the paper bag in her hands. Part of her had hoped they'd rule it out, find out for certain some other way.

"Yes. We spoke about it at length last night." Vector set down his pen and fixed his amber eyes on her. "None of us are really happy with the situation."

Espio and Charmy shook their heads.

"We tried to think up something else," Vector went on. "Knuckles even wanted to take your place as the test subject."

"Knuckles?" Amy sat forward and looked around the room.

"Yeh." The red echidna stepped out from the kitchen, clutching a tea tray.

"What are _you_ doing here?" she asked, rather too abruptly.

He raised an eyebrow at her, and she sank back down into the sofa.

"Not that I'm not happy to see you," she added.

He set the tray down on the desk, then quickly moved it to the coffee table when Espio pointed to it.

"I'm helping out," he said. "But I think their idea's foolish."

"It was _my_ idea," Amy told him.

He frowned at her. "It's still foolish! But if it's going to go ahead, then apparently it's the best one."  
"Unfortunately." Espio scratched his head and looked away from her. "You see, Vector and I had a hard enough time dealing with a rampaging bee. If one of us were to end up like that, it might make for a bit of trouble. However, and I hope you don't take this the wrong way -"

Vector raised his hands. "Please don't take this the wrong way. We've all seen what you can do with that hammer!"  
"The thing is," Espio continued, "there are three adult males here, and one oddly strong child. So I think we'd be completely able to control a rampaging girl."

Amy blinked at them a few times as she tried to quell the slowly rising anger that often preluded a piko piko hammer smash. "How am I not meant to take that the wrong way?"

Espio turned to Vector. "See? I told you we should have used my script!"

"Well it's too late now. The damage is already done." Vector crumpled up a sheet of lined paper and tossed it into the bin.

Knuckles pulled up a rickety chair opposite her. "Now listen, Amy. None of us are making fun of you. It's just, we have a point. If one of us went a bit... doo-lally... it would be rather tough to deal with. Whereas if you hand over your hammer first -"

"You're saying I need my hammer?! I have no physical strength?!"

There it was. The prelude was over. The hammer entered the main stage as she brought it swinging down towards Knuckles' head.

Fortunately the echidna thought fast and raised his fists, catching the hammer front on and bringing it's descent to an abrupt halt.

"Thank you, Amy." He tugged it from her grip and eyed it cautiously before turning back to the now panting hedgehog. "You're very strong, but without your hammer you'd make significantly less mess if you went into a bit of a -"

He tossed the hammer behind him, but before he could finish his sentence the giant mallet bounced off the floor, struck the wall, hammered into the ceiling then went careening through the air.

Charmy shot into the middle of the room like a dart and crashed into the hammer, body-slamming it into the floor.

"I got it," he wheezed.

Vector and Espio stood, braced for action, on either side of the desk. Both of them looked as though they'd just witnessed someone drive a car through their office and speed off into a black hole.

To be honest, that wouldn't have been a bad way to describe the current state of the room. That is, if cars could hammer holes into the floor. And walls. And ceiling.

"Great," Vector snorted. "There goes our security deposit."

"I think that went out of the window the day you decided to use open-flame candles instead of lights on our Christmas tree," said Espio.

"All that did was burn the wall a little bit. It didn't put holes in it!"  
Knuckles and Amy were still staring at the wreckage.

"I... am terribly sorry," said Knuckles.

"Me too," Amy added. "You know what, I'll do the test. I don't care what your reasons are. I'll also cover your damages." She paused. "In instalments."

Charmy looked up shakily. "This hammer is still trying to fight me."

...

The holes were now boarded up, and Amy sat once again on the sofa, one eye on the cupboard which was firmly locked with her hammer inside it. Knuckles sat opposite her sipping at a cup of tea while Espio set up a video camera. Vector and Charmy sat at the desk, the latter eyeing the proceedings with curiosity.

"When do you want me to start?" Amy asked.

"As soon as this camera is on," said Espio. "Give me a second... there! You're all set to go."

"Okay..." Amy stared at the chocolate bars.

She didn't have a sweet tooth for chocolate, but the thought of those dried strawberry pieces buried beneath velvety milk chocolate made her mouth involuntarily water. She pulled off the wrapper and froze. Every single pair of eyes in the room, not to mention the camera, were now on her. She looked up at the detectives slowly.

"Erm... do you really need to watch me?"

Vector grunted and looked back down at his paperwork. "Well... maybe not so intensely."

Espio cleared his throat and moved back over to the desk, trying to feign interest in whatever Vector was doing.

Amy quickly surveyed the room. Charmy was now playing with a metal puzzle he'd found somewhere, and Knuckles had flipped open a book. That just left the camera staring at her.

She broke off a piece of chocolate and popped it in her mouth. It started to melt instantly. She tried to ignore it and flipped open her own book.

It was one she'd read twice before. The first in a shoujo light novel romance series about a girl at university. It wasn't a long book at all. She could normally finish it in one evening, but if she was just going to be sitting eating chocolate all day, she might as well bring something to do.

"How are you feeling?" Espio asked.

She looked up from her book, the third square of chocolate in her hand. The chameleon was trying not to stare at her. He repeatedly tapped the notepad with a pen, glancing from her to the chocolate and back.

"I can't deny it's moreish," she said. "But that's probably the strawberry."

Espio and Vector exchanged glances.

"Then I'd make a start on the other one," Vector told her.

Amy shrugged, popped the strawberry square in her mouth and unwrapped the other bar. It was just plain chocolate, but nevertheless it was still oddly moreish.

She slipped back into her book, following the endeavours of the young geeky outcast as she tried to win the heart of the founder of the book group. Occasionally she chuckled at the literature puns, drawing glances from the detectives and Knuckles. It wasn't until Espio spoke to her again that she realised how unusually quiet the office had been.

"I think you should stop now, Amy."

She looked up at the chameleon and it took a small moment for her to realise he was talking about the experiment. She looked over at the plain chocolate bar. She was already half way through it, and she hadn't reached the end of the third chapter yet.

She licked her lips, keeping her eyes on the chocolate bar. "You want me to stop?"  
Knuckles reached across the table and grabbed both bars, stuffing them back into the paper bag. He caught Amy's wide, emerald gaze and shrugged.

"Sorry, Amy." He handed the bag to Vector.

Amy heard a click as the crocodile turned an unseen key in his desk.

"Well." She leant back in the sofa and turned back to her book. "It's only chocolate after all."

None of the others said anything.

She kept on with her novel, turning page after page as she followed the girl's hilarious plot line. However, it wasn't making her laugh as much as it had been previously. She was finding it hard to focus as her mind kept going back to her now unavailable snack.

It seemed to take forever to reach the end of the fourth chapter. She looked up at the clock. It was only one-thirty in the afternoon. She grit her teeth and turned back to the novel.

One thirty-five...

One forty...

One forty-two...

"Are you okay, Amy?"

She looked up at Knuckles. He was staring at her over a fresh, steaming cup of tea. When had that been delivered? She hadn't heard anyone offer to brew up.

"I... I'm fine." She stared back down at her book. "Just bored."

Bored.

The words on the page were no longer registering.

"I think it's lunch time," said Espio. "Do you want a sandwich, Amy?"

She looked up at him with a frown. Her quills began to bristle at the thought. "Sandwich?" She paused, running through sandwich fillings in her mind. Surely there were some sweet ones? "… What kind?"

Vector scratched his head. "We only have ham, salad and mayonnaise in the fridge."

Amy raised an eyebrow. Ham? Mayonnaise? That wasn't sweet. She looked away from them and closed her book.

The sweet shop wasn't that far away. She could make it out of the room, right? Only Knuckles sat in the way of her and the door. If she was fast...

The red echidna eyed her for a moment then stood up and moved over to the door. The sound of the catch dropping seemed to echo off the peeling walls. He stared at her, his brow furrowing.

"I think you might be right," he said, not taking his eyes off the pink hedgehog. "Something's not right about that chocolate."  
"Yeh," said Vector. "It's worked really quickly n'all. We only took it off her about half an hour ago."

Amy looked at each of them. She could feel a bead of sweat running down her neck. "You... You think this is the chocolate?"

Her heart was pounding. She wasn't sure if she'd ever been this scared in her life. It was true? This was what that chocolate did?  
Then why did she still want more of the wretched stuff?!

She jumped up, causing the sofa to scrape across the bare, wooden floor. She hadn't realised how close she'd been to the coffee table. Knuckles was in front of her in an instant, catching her before she fell on top of it.

The knowledge of whatever it was that chocolate was doing to her was not quelling her desire for more of the sweet stuff. In fact, the craving was overpowering her common sense. All she wanted to do was shove Knuckles aside and run out of that door.

"Amy!"

Apparently that's what she'd tried to do. He grabbed both her hands in one of his and pushed her back into the sofa.

"Oh bother." Espio slumped onto the desk and placed his head in his hands.

"Well, we knew this would happen." Vector moved over to her. Both of him. Wait, no... all three of him. "I'm just glad we locked away that hammer."

...

Wooden slats...

She didn't recall her ceiling having wooden slats...

Was she in a bunk bed?

Amy rubbed a hand over her eyes and pushed herself up, letting the sheets fall off her. For some reason the sheets were a green and brown camo print. The bed felt weird. The room smelled strange. Where was she?

She blinked a few times to clear her vision and looked around. An alarm clock sat on the bed side table to her right amongst a pile of crumpled biscuit wrappers, blinking the incorrect time. Going off her phone, it seemed to be fifteen minutes fast. Posters littered the walls of varying rock groups, and a pair of swords were hung above the window's dingy blind.

No. This definitely was _not_ her room.

The previous day came to her in pieces. She had no recollection of what had happened after the boys started to show concern. She had a brief memory of Vector hiding the teacups and Charmy locking himself in his room. But other than that, nothing.

Was she still in the office? It wasn't unlikely.

She certainly wasn't at home anyway, unless someone had come in and redecorated while she slept.

Despite the state of the bedside table, the wooden floor was rather tidy. She strolled out of the room and pushed the door open, which she was relieved it did without any resistance. The short corridor that faced her opened out into the office. The Chaotix were gathered around their desk with the video camera hooked up to the laptop. They looked up at her as she entered the room.

"Good afternoon, Amy!" Vector boomed.

Afternoon?

She yawned and rubbed her eyes again, looking around at the office. Blankets were tossed onto the sofa, and a roll-away futon was spread out next to it where the coffee table normally stood. The remains and wrappings of late night snacks were scattered across the floor.

"You slept like a log," he went on. "Although I'm not surprised."

"What happened?" she croaked.

"You don't remember?" Espio didn't sound surprised but he shifted uneasily in his seat.

What did she do? She wasn't sure she could deal with this right now. Her head felt like someone had stuffed it with cotton wool. She strolled into the kitchen and helped herself to a glass of water.

"We're watching it now," said Knuckles. "But I don't really know if you'd want to see it."

She stepped back into the office and paused in the doorway. Reluctantly she glanced over at the laptop screen. They'd kept the sound low which she didn't hear until now.

She could hear herself yelling, and her pink form darted around on the screen as she tried to get past the Chaotix to get to the door. They all seemed rather composed despite the situation. But as for herself, it was like watching someone else entirely, yet they looked just like her. She had to look away and sip at her drink, but now she was aware of the sound it was like she couldn't escape it.

It was really her. She'd behaved like an absolute maniac and she had no memory of it.

"I..." She glanced back at the detectives. "I'm sorry I put you through all that. I-"

Without looking up from the computer, Vector waved a hand at her. "Forget about it."

"Yes," said Espio. "You were under the influence of whatever is in that chocolate, just like Charmy was."

The yells from the computer died down, creating an eerie silence interspersed by the quiet recorded voices of the Chaotix. Amy ventured a glance at the screen. It had been left running while the detectives discussed their notes, and none of them seemed to be paying it any attention any more. Vector had scooped her up and answered Espio's question about letting her stay in their room. Knuckles had moved out of sight of the camera and there was no sign of Charmy. He was obviously still locked in his room. Espio covered his face with his hands and flopped onto the sofa with an audible groan.

' _I can't believe we just did that_ ,' he said.

' _Hang on! It's still running!_ ' came Knuckles' voice.

Espio looked up sharply and closed the laptop screen just as the picture lurched and showed footage of the floor.

Vector blinked a couple of times. "Blimey, Knux! Did you drop it?"

Knuckles frowned. "You try turning off a camera while wearing boxing gloves!"

Amy stood with her glass poised before her lips. The bickering between the detectives was nothing more than mere background noise as she tried to work out what had happened. They'd all seemed so calm while they'd tried to deal with her outburst, minus Charmy as she hadn't seen him in the video footage. Even when Vector had carried her, he hadn't seemed stressed or upset. Espio, however, was a different case. He'd seemed disturbed by it all. Had they all felt upset? Worried? And why had Knuckles felt the need to rugby tackle the camera? (That was the image she had going through her mind and she was sticking with it.)

Something nagged at the back of her mind, forcing itself through the mass of cotton wool and shoving aside the spiral of confused thoughts. She almost dropped her glass, sloshing water onto the floor.

She choked as her drink went down the wrong way. "The sweet shop!" she gasped out.

The detectives looked up at her.

"What about it?" Vector asked.

She wiped her hand across her mouth and set the glass down on the desk. "I'm late! I was meant to be in at eleven!"

She rushed to the door and grabbed her bag from the coat peg.

"Forget it," said the crocodile. "I called in sick for you this morning."  
She looked back at him and blinked. "Huh?"

"You're in no fit state to go in," he said. "I told them you had food poisoning. They're not expecting you until Wednesday at the earliest."  
"W... Wednesday?"

"Don't worry, they're fine with it," said Espio. "As far as we're aware, they suspect nothing. But until then, you should stay here."

Amy stared at the door, her hand clasped around her bag strap. Stay here? After a rough night like that, she much preferred the idea of being in her own home, with her own comforts. And she also wanted to ring Cream.

Her mind went back to the video footage of Espio flopping onto the sofa. She wouldn't be thinking anything of it if it weren't for Knuckles' reaction. Was there more to it than met the eye?  
She _really_ wanted to ring Cream.

"Why are you still standing near the door?" Vector rumbled. "Sit down, girl. You need your rest."

Amy gave a slow nod. "Okay."

She moved over to the sofa and pushed the blankets aside before falling heavily into it.

It felt good to be sat down. She was now aware of how tired her body felt. Her eyes closed involuntarily and let out a long sigh, leaning back into the worn leather cushion. Her mind drifted in and out of the conversation around her, mixing with a distorted dream of sweets and a comedic battle between her friends and giant hammers.

"It's certainly a strange situation we've found ourselves in," said Sonic.

The hammer robot swung its arms down towards Sonic and Sally. They dived out of the way as Amy brought her own hammer up to strike the robot, sending it spinning like a spinning top into a group of buildings that fell apart in a rain of colourful gum drops.

"I know." Sally raised an eyebrow at the sky.

Bunnie went flying past above them on a giant hammer rocket with Antoine waving a hanky at them. They vanished into a cloud of candyfloss.

"It seems like a reaction to some kind of drug," Sally went on, "but they've not found anything in any of the samples we've sent in."

"Not in that blood sample either." Sonic shook his head sadly, then brought his fist down onto a smaller hammer, causing it to squeak in protest.

"What do you think it is?" Tails asked.

The tiny hammer exploded into a flurry of hearts and flowers. Suddenly they were in a field filled with Flickies.

"I dunno. But I think we need to follow their supply van again." Sonic yawned and lay down on the grass.

"Watch what you're doing with that drink!" Sally barked at Tails. "This is why there's a 'no drinks at the desk' rule! Sit by the table."

"But I don't wanna disturb Amy!" said Tails.

A giant candy cane plummeted from the sky, creating a high pitched whistle that grew louder and louder as it headed towards the ground. It struck Amy in the stomach, knocking her off her feet.

She sat up with a start, the field fading away into the Chaotix's office.

It was empty.

Everyone had gone.

...

 **Please R &R! =D**


	6. Recovery Tactics

**A/N - Woo! I've managed to finish writing this. 12 chapters all done! So there's no worries about me abandoning it ;) updates will continue on Mondays and Fridays!**

 **Disclaimer - I do NOT own Sonic the Hedgehog or any of its characters!**

6 – Recovery Tactics

Amy blinked in bewilderment. How long had she been asleep? It didn't feel like it had been long, but the living room was significantly tidier. The roll-away futon was gone, the wrappers had been thrown away and all but one of the blankets had been neatly folded on the arm of the chair. The other one was lying in a crumpled heap over her feet. She eyed it as though it were alive and planning to creep up her body and consume her at any given moment. Of course it wasn't alive. She'd not noticed it during her somewhat frantic survey of the room. The only conceivable way it could be there was if it had been thrown over her at some point.

"Oh, you're awake!"  
A high pitched squeal shot out of Amy's mouth and she span her head to face the speaker. Espio was standing in the hallway that joined the office to the bedrooms, steadying a clunky television in his hands which he'd almost dropped during her sudden unexpected outburst.

She clasped her hands over her mouth, her emerald eyes impossibly wide.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I wasn't expecting... I thought I was alone!"  
He gave her a small smile and moved over to the coffee table. "Vector and Charmy went with Knuckles to investigate the wholesalers again."

"Then why aren't you with them?"

"We didn't want to leave you on your own in case there were any side effects." He plugged the television in and looked back at her. She expected the socket to spark, and was actually surprised when it didn't. "You consumed a lot more than Charmy had. It's better to be safe than sorry."

She didn't know what to say. She wanted to ask him why he'd chosen to stay. Didn't the Chaotix need him? The other two couldn't mask their presence like he could.

The camera footage of him flopping onto the sofa careened through her mind and she looked away from him sharply. Maybe he just felt responsible for what she'd been through.

"It's not your fault, you know," she said quietly.

He was standing now, trying to change the channel with a rather boxy remote. He looked over his shoulder at her and raised an eyebrow.

"What isn't?"

She gestured to herself. "This. I chose to go through with that experiment. You shouldn't feel like you need to look after me."

He blinked at her a couple of times then looked back at the television. "I'm not looking after you because I feel responsible, Amy. I'm doing it because it's the right thing to do."

"Huh?"

Espio merely stared back at her dumbfounded expression.

"But..." She pushed herself fully upright and placed the blanket on the back of the sofa. "There are more important things for you to be doing..."

"I _am_ doing something important." The television finally obeyed and displayed a rather erratic snowstorm over what appeared to be the news. He sat down on the sofa beside her and flicked through the distorted channels. "You're part of this investigation, not just as assistance but also as a victim. A voluntary victim, but a victim nonetheless. If we were to just leave you unattended, it would not just be immoral but would also be going against the investigation itself."  
Amy wasn't sure whether to be moved or offended. When she didn't say anything, he went on.

"You see, Charmy was pretty tired after his experience. The only way I can really think of it is as some kind of withdrawal. Since you had more, there's no saying you won't relapse. If no one were here, there'd be no one to take note of that. Also, no one to stop you racing out to the shop to get another fix."

She placed her head in her hands and groaned. "This is all too hard to process right now."

"Then rest."

Rest... it sounded like a great idea, but with everything that had happened recently it felt impossible.

She just sat staring at the screen as an ageing monkey gave the news and weather, the picture intermittently breaking up and losing its colour as it adopted a monochrome grey for a second or two. She picked up snippets of it – something to do with Eggman and a spate of jewel thefts – but her mind wouldn't leave that shop.

When she zoned back in, the news was over, replaced by a comedy show hosted by a tabby cat and her fox friend. Something drifted up in front of the screen and she followed the steamy trail down to a fresh cup of tea.

"Oh..." She picked it up gingerly and glanced over at Espio. "Thank you."

He gave her a small smile. "When you didn't answer I just assumed you wanted one."

"It might wake me up a bit." She sipped it and let out a long sigh, lowering the cup on her lap.

The two of them sat in silence, Amy zoning in and out of the television until the show had switched and she'd completely lost track of it. Something to do with cooking. What surprised her was how comfortable she felt now. Despite the blanket over her lower half and the unkempt environment, she didn't feel like she was currently assisting in an investigation. Espio relaxing beside her seemed rather undetective-like, she thought. Something she didn't expect, since she rarely saw him outside of work.

' _Come to think of it_ ,' she found herself thinking, ' _it's been over a year since I spent any time with him._ '

She peered at him over the rim of her teacup, which he clearly noticed as he fired her a sideways glance.

"I can't believe it's been so long since I last saw you," she said. "And the rest of the Chaotix."

A small smile played at his lips. "Unless your mind is completely addled, I'm assuming you mean before this investigation."

She chuckled. "Yes, before all this."

He made a thoughtful noise and leant back in the sofa. "To be honest, none of us made much effort to stay in touch. The last time we saw you was at your sixteenth birthday party."

Amy flinched. "That's coming up a lot lately."

"Then let's change the subject. You don't need to keep re-living it."

She hugged the warm cup against her chest and stared blankly at the television. Now the memory was fresh in her mind, she couldn't get over how she'd just stormed off, leaving everyone behind.

"I'm sorry," she said meekly.

The sofa seemed to wobble as Espio turned sharply to look at her.

"That I left like that," she went on. "I didn't say goodbye or thank you or anything."

"Forget about it." He turned back to the cooking show. "There were no hurt feelings. We understood the situation. That's what friends are for."

When she'd left that party, she'd no idea how her friends reacted. She hadn't even considered she'd been missed until she'd switched her phone on to an abundance of text messages. She'd assumed Knuckle's mention of a missing persons report had been a joke, but after seeing Espio's reaction on camera, she was growing concerned it wasn't as much of a joke as she'd first thought.

She swallowed drily, staring into her now tepid mug of tea. "I just hope... you weren't worried about me."

Espio let out a single laugh. "Of course we were worried about you."

"Huh?" She turned her head to face him.

"But it's in the past now," he said. "Forget about it. You're safe. And you're older, wiser..." He raised an eyebrow at her. "And clearly tired."

She lowered her hand from her mouth, now aware she'd been yawning.

He chuckled. "Get some rest. And stop worrying about the past. You've got your whole future ahead of you."

She nodded.

"I'll make you a fresh cup of tea." He reached for her cup, but she shook her head.

"No." She set the cup on the table and yawned again. "I'll just have a little nap."

She pulled the blanket up higher and let herself fall onto the arm of the sofa.

"Not that one." Espio took her arm gently. "It's broken. Here, I'll switch places with you."

But before he could stand up, she'd flopped half-asleep against him. She huddled into the sofa, letting her head rest on his lap. The situation hadn't quite registered in her mind, as a comedy cooking show began to take over it instead.

...

Espio stared down at the pink hedgehog now huddled into his lap. He had no idea where to put his hands. One of them was hovering over Amy's shoulder while the other had grabbed the TV remote like a lifeline. She was now breathing steadily, hugging the corner of the blanket into her chest.

Sound asleep.

He hadn't the heart to wake her. He'd just have to wait until she woke up.

Unless his racing heart woke her first.

He forced himself to sit back in the sofa. Try to relax. Watch the current TV show. Ignore the sleeping hedgehog.

But as his eye trailed back to her, he realised it was easier said than done. He brushed the back of his fingers against her quills and his heart did a flip into his throat. He didn't know if she'd fallen into him consciously or not, and if not, he hadn't the faintest idea how he was going to explain the situation when she woke up.

And if it was deliberate... why?

He let his hand rest on her shoulder, and scanned his eyes over her for any sign she might still be awake. But it was rather clear she wasn't. No... he wasn't going to read into this.

However, all the feelings he'd been suppressing for the past year came rushing back like a river finally breaking through a dam. He covered his face with a hand and let out a low groan.

"What do I do?"

...

The phone just rang out endlessly, which really got Vector's hackles up.

"Argh! Pick up the phone, Espio!" Regardless, the crocodile slammed the mobile phone back down into his bag.

Knuckles looked over at him. "Still not picking up, huh?"

"No." Vector crossed his arms and joined Knuckles against the low brick wall. "I wouldn't be so bothered if it weren't for the fact this van ain't goin' nowhere fast."

The pair of them stared at the little green transit van. It certainly wasn't going anywhere fast. One of the wheels had rolled off just after the lorry they'd been following had pulled into a narrow road between two fields. One of them had little yellow flowers growing in them, the other had large weeds with huge round flower heads. They'd had to run to catch up with it, but when they reached the little road, the lorry had seemingly vanished into thin air.

This had later been dis-proven by Charmy who had found a locked warehouse about a mile away where the lorry had parked behind.

What had really concerned Vector was the field of flowers. Charmy had confirmed that both flowers were incredibly toxic. So why were they growing in abundance in two large fields? However, they could easily be growing quite naturally. Both of them were wild flowers. The fields may have been abandoned. There were no farmers in sight, no huts, no cattle grazing in adjoining fields, just that locked up warehouse a mile down the road. As for the flowers themselves, Vector was fairly adamant something so toxic wouldn't be added into sweets. Besides, if that were the case wouldn't there have been deaths by now?

Lonely primrose and bright scarlet...

To rule it out, he'd grabbed a sample of each. Carefully. The red one had thorns.

"Hopefully Charmy will be back with that tow truck soon," said Knuckles.

"Yeh." Vector nodded. "Then we can get these samples in, and hopefully have the case solved before the end of next week. Otherwise, we ain't gonna make rent this month."

Knuckles eyed him for a moment, then looked back at the transit van. "You are aware you're going to have to pay for a new wheel? And whatever other damages ensued after it came off?"

Vector slammed his hand to his face. "Drat!"

...

The dull drone of the television slowly dragged Amy out of a waning dream. Wherever she was, it was warm. She hugged the edge of the duvet and let her eyes flicker open, taking in the old TV set sat in the dim light that came in through the murky window.

A warm hand rested on her shoulder, and she rolled her eyes up to take in Espio staring pointedly at the television.

"Eek!"

She sat up with such a start the blanket fell off her and she backed up into the wobbly, broken arm at the other end of the sofa. Espio turned to face her, both hands raised and his mouth open as he tried to find the right words to string together. She found herself groping for her hammer, but remembered with some disappointment that it was currently locked away in the cupboard.

It was probably a good thing.

She didn't really want to smack the chameleon with it, especially since his current state of mind seemed to reflect her own.

"You fell asleep!" he said, quickly.

"Asleep..."

"Yes. I couldn't bring myself to disturb you." He let his hands fall to his lap and looked away from her. "Sorry."

She shook her head, letting her body finally relax as she fell onto her knees. "It's okay... I... I don't really remember."

"It's not okay. It would have been common courtesy to move you."

"No, it..." She trailed off as she watched him fidgeting, perched on the edge of the seat not quite looking at the TV. "Maybe?"

He glanced at her and flinched, dragging himself to his feet. It sent a pang through her chest. This wasn't a side of him she was used to seeing. She'd never thought the calm, down to earth ninja could ever be nervous or on edge, but something had set him off. Something that probably went past her just falling asleep on him.

"You look better, anyway," he said. "But you should rest more. You're welcome to stay here. I'm just going to go for a quick walk."  
She watched him stroll over to the door, each step making her feel more and more confused. And a little lonely.

"A walk sounds good."

Her voice took her by surprise. Espio stopped with his hand on the doorknob, fixing her with an equally surprised look out of the corner of his eye.

She looked away from him, tugging at the hem of the blanket. "If you don't mind... can I join you?"

He shrugged. "Sure."

Amy shed the blanket and quickly grabbed her hammer from the cupboard. She caught Espio's wary look as she hid the hammer behind her and anxiously joined his side.

Amy couldn't help but feel that the both of them were likely thinking this was going to be the single most stressful walk either of them would ever have.

...

The sun had started to set, dying the sky in a warm mottled pattern of yellow and orange. The air had cooled now the sun's rays were dwindling away, and the branches of the park's trees swayed elegantly in the gentle breeze.

Conversation between Amy and Espio had been sporadic, but the walk through the park had been a pleasant one. They'd been strolling for about an hour and found themselves on the path looping back to the main gate.

Gleeful voices reached their ears, and they glanced through the bushes at a couple of young squirrels stood beside an ice cream van on the adjoining path.

"Are you sure you don't want an ice cream?" Espio asked her.

Amy shook her head. "No, really. I'm fine."

In all honesty, the thought of anything sweet turned her stomach. Not because she felt sick, but because the memory of her actions, seeing herself like that on camera, was still too fresh in her mind.

All started because of sweets.

She shook her head again, sharply. She _really_ didn't want ice cream.

Espio traced his eyes over her then glanced back at the ice cream van, now visible directly across from them as the two paths joined. She could tell he knew what it was that was bothering her, but he chose not to mention it.

"Well... let's get back," he said. "I won't be surprised if Vector's back by now."

Amy nodded and plodded along beside him silently.

"Oh! Amy!"

She looked up as the slender figure of Clara raced towards her. Espio came to an abrupt stop at her side, his yellow eyes not leaving the snow leopard.

"It's so good to see you out and about!" She stopped before them and held her hands behind her back. "Your friend told us you had food poisoning! Wow... you _do_ look tired!"

"Erm... erm..." Amy looked over Clara's shoulder at the bench she'd rushed from. Her sister was sat watching them curiously. "I... I am tired, actually."

It wasn't a lie. She was rather tired, but right now she wasn't sure how much anxiety showed on her face. Seeing these two leopards after discovering there was indeed something wrong with their produce was rather alarming, and all she wanted to do was turn invisible and race off into the distance.

Which she found herself longing for Espio to train her in.

Although hedgehogs can't turn invisible.

' _Drat!_ '

Clara blinked her huge blue eyes. "Are you all right? You've gone deathly pale!"  
"Leave her alone, Clara." Sasha placed an arm heavily around her shoulder and looked over both Amy and Espio with a smile that was meant to be friendly but caused Amy's quills to bristle. "I imagine she's wanting a bit of peace and quiet. She doesn't need you running around her like a mother duck!" The leopard chuckled. "Besides, these two were probably enjoying a romantic walk until _you_ butted in."

Amy felt her face flush. She quickly diverted her gaze to a spot above Sasha's shoulder.

"We were just getting some air," said Espio, rather politely. "It's good to see you both. At least you know she's recovering."  
"Yes." Sasha brushed her hair behind her ear. "It looks like you'll be well enough for Wednesday. But don't worry if you're not. Your health comes first."

The two leopards stood aside and waved them away. Amy glanced at them over her shoulder before picking up her pace to keep up with Espio.

He placed his hand on her back and ushered her to walk beside him. She felt her quills bristle again as it sent an odd tingle up her spine. Once they were out of earshot, he let out a small sigh of relief.

"That could have gone a lot worse," he muttered.

Amy let out a grunt of agreement.

' _Your health comes first._ '

She couldn't help but feel those words were rather ironic.

...

 **Please R &R! =D**


	7. It Was Obvious

**A/N - Thanks for all reviews, faves and follows! =D**

 **Disclaimer - I do NOT own Sonic the Hedgehog or any of its characters!**

7 – It Was Obvious

As soon as the door to the office opened, Amy felt three pairs of eyes lock onto her and Espio.

"You're back!" Vector boomed from the desk.

Charmy cheered and buzzed into the air.

"Yes," said Espio. "And so are you."

Vector slumped into his chair and groaned. "Yeh, finally."

"What do you mean finally?"

"Don't ask."

"He means," said Knuckles as he idly flicked through the television channels, "that the van lost a wheel, and it took us ages to find someone to tow us home for a decent price."  
Espio closed the door with a sigh and closed his eyes. "You were being tight fisted again, Vector?"

The crocodile grumbled. "Do you wanna make rent this month, or not?"

"So what did you find out?"

Espio joined Vector at the desk as the crocodile pulled out two clear bags.

"This," he said. "Lonely primrose and bright scarlet."

"Flowers?" Amy trotted over to the desk and peered down at the two flowers. One yellow, the other red. "What do flowers have to do with anything?"

"Probably nothing," said Vector. "But it doesn't hurt to get it checked out."

"Both are poisonous," explained Charmy. "And they were growing near the warehouse where the lorry we followed parked up."

"Huh." Amy scratched her head. "Couldn't that just be a coincidence?"

"Most likely." Vector popped the samples back in his bag. "I'm gonna get these sent off tomorrow, see what they can find out."

Espio folded his arms and leant against the wall. "Hopefully it's not a dead end."

"Yeh. Those lab tests ain't cheap."

Espio nodded, but said nothing.

Amy watched him for a moment, standing with his eyes closed against the wall.

' _Besides, these two were probably enjoying a romantic walk until you butted in._ '

Sasha's comment rang through her mind, and she felt her face flush slightly. She diverted her gaze from him and caught Knuckles' eye before she turned her attention on the peeling door.

"I..." Her voice cracked and she paused to clear her throat. "I think I'll head back home now."

"Nope!" Vector placed his pen noisily on the table and inclined his head on one side.

"Nope?" Amy repeated.

"Nope! You're still, although not incredibly likely, going through the end of a withdrawal phase. As such, we want to keep you here to make sure you're safe."

Amy grit her teeth together and looked away from him. She was beginning to feel like a test subject. Trapped in a cage she was really wanting to get out of.

She wanted her own home, her own bed, her own blanket. Familiar smells and surroundings.

A nice catch-up with Cream, maybe a hot cocoa, a girly laugh.

To find out why on earth that leopard girl's words wouldn't get out of her head.

Stockholm Syndrome? No... it was too early for that.

"I think she's okay to go back, Vector," said Knuckles. "Besides, haven't you bugged her place?"

Vector raised an eyebrow. "Yeah?"

"Then let the girl leave."

Vector picked up his pen and returned to his notes. "Too risky."  
Amy let out a flustered sigh and flopped down on the sofa between Knuckles and Charmy.

"It's fine," she said. "I'll stay." She fired Vector a pointed glare. "But I'm leaving tomorrow!"

"Fine by me," grumbled the crocodile.

She looked over at Espio to find him watching her. He gave her a sympathetic smile which caused something to stir in her stomach. She looked away sharply, feeling her face heat up again, and caught Knuckles' eye once more.

"What?" she choked.

He cleared his throat and handed her the remote. "Want to choose a channel?"

...

Sleep had been somewhat broken as Amy tossed and turned in a vain attempt to get comfy. She had no idea how the lumpy mattress hadn't woken her up the night before. When light finally leaked in through the window, she lay staring at it until the faint sound of movement told her the Chaotix had woken up.

She dragged herself off the bed and marched, still fully clothed, to the bedroom door. Vector and Espio were sat amongst a nest of blankets on the worn leather sofa, while the faint sound of sizzling came from the kitchen.

The two detectives looked up at her but instead of words, a loud 'argh!' came from the crocodile's mouth.

"Erm..." His eyes darted left and right as he tried to string a sentence together. "You, erm..." He grinned. "The tired look suits you!"  
Amy pursed her lips together and her shoulders tensed, her hammer appearing in her right hand. She watched the two reptiles as Vector waved his hands muttering out a garbled apology and Espio, who'd been nibbling on a biscuit, let it fall onto his lap.

"Can I _please_ go _home_?!" she roared.

Vector looked like he was about to climb over Espio to hide, but the chameleon had slowly started to turn invisible making such an endeavour pointless.

Knuckles' face appeared in the kitchenette doorway and he looked from the pink hedgehog to the two detectives and back.

"I think she's fine," he said, giving the two men another glance. "Let the girl leave." He looked back up at Amy. "Do you want pancakes?"

Amy felt herself bristle, but suddenly hunger washed over her and a small smile spread across her face.

"Actually, pancakes would be nice, thanks."

"Did someone say pancakes?!" A streak of black and yellow shot past her face and Charmy landed heavily on the sofa. "Pancakes! Pancakes! Pancakes!"  
"Charmy wants pancakes," Vector called to the kitchen.

"I heard," said Knuckles.

Vector and Espio watched Amy for a moment then scooted apart to allow her to sit down. She squeezed herself between them and stared blankly at the TV screen... which was off. She felt incredibly awkward, and her left arm felt oddly warm as Espio brushed against her to reach for another biscuit.

There it was again. That weird feeling she'd had the day before, stirred up again making her wonder if she was hungry after all.

Time seemed to drag as they sat in silence – minus Charmy who was singing a song about pancakes. A sweet smell flooded the little room, and Knuckles strolled in, depositing a plate in her lap and handing the other one to the little bee.

The smell alone whipped up her appetite again. She was glad to have it back. After the ordeal with that strange chocolate, she was worried she'd never want anything sweet again. The syrupy pancakes were certainly welcome.

It wasn't long until they'd all finished their breakfast (although it felt like it would never end as she sat awkwardly besides Espio while the detectives nattered and bickered amongst themselves) and Amy finally stood up.

"Okay. Thank you for breakfast, but I think I'm going to leave now."  
"All right," said Vector. He stood up and dusted himself down. "I'm sorry to have kept ya so long, Amy, but it's been necessary. You know?"

She gave a small nod. "I understand. I'll see you tomorrow."

She made her way to the door, and no sooner was she outside in the hallway, she leant back against it with a sigh.

Finally. She was out. Now she could go home and catch up on her missed sleep, have a shower, sort out her head.

The door opened and she stumbled backwards into the office with a yell. Two hands caught her and steadied her back on her feet.

"Careful, Amy!"

The voice already caused her face to flush, although she could rest assured her general embarrassment covered that up. She leapt away from Espio and straightened out her dress.

"I... I'm sorry, I was just-"

He cut off her garbled chain of words with a wave. "I was actually trying to catch up with you." He gave a small smile. "But I didn't expect to be physically catching you."

She blushed again and looked away from him. "Like I said, I was just-"

' _Just what?_ ' She frowned at herself. She'd not even thought of an excuse.

"Leaning," she quickly finished.

She mentally face-palmed. ' _Good one, Amy._ '

Espio closed the door, blocking out the confused and amused faces that peered out at them.

"I was going to offer to walk you home," he explained.

"Why?!"

He raised an eyebrow. "Well, after walking into those girls in the park yesterday, the evidence is you can walk into them _anywhere_."

"Of course you can," she said. "They live here."  
They live here... they live here and they're likely adding some addictive substance into their sweets. Knowingly selling it. Knowing full well her 'food poisoning' likely wasn't food poisoning since they'd seen her buy two bars of their chocolate before Vector called in sick on her behalf.

They likely knew that she knew what they were up to.

She cleared her throat and turned to stare down the stairs at the worn front door. Any one could walk her home. Any one could have stayed with her when she was recovering. Why him? Her face warmed up again and she tried desperately to not look at him straight on, keeping her eyes firmly on the exit.

"Thank you," she said. "We... we should go."

And now she was nervous again. Wonderful.

She plodded down the stairs, Espio following lightly after her. The gentle wind that greeted her when they got outside was a welcome breath of fresh air. She became aware of how stifling it had been in there.

"You should really open windows more often," she said.

"I would. But a bird flew in once and stole Vector's sandwich. He wasn't happy about it."

For some reason, Amy could picture that as clear as day.

She nodded her understanding and turned towards the junction that led off the little street onto the main road. He kept pace next to her, and they walked in silence. An awkward silence as Amy's head span with unvoiced questions, most of them aimed at her.

She shook her head sharply to clear them away. She needed to start a conversation, one that would shut those questions up, at least until she got home and could sort them out.

' _The case_ ,' she told herself. ' _Talk about that._ '

"I have to say," she began, "this is probably the strangest event I've been involved in, and that says a lot."

He glanced at her and crossed his hands behind his head.

"Do these things come up quite often?" she asked. "The investigations, I mean?"

He shrugged. "This is a strange one for us too. We normally deal with missing people, or requests from women who want us to follow their husbands because they think they might be being unfaithful. So... I have to say no."

The whistle from the crossing rang out and they trotted across the road before it changed again. After the sharp noise stopped, the waiting cars roared by, almost drowning out her voice as she strained to be heard over them.

"What's going to happen when it's over?" she asked.

"Well, you'll be paid, obviously."

"I don't mean that. I mean to them. The shop."  
He shrugged again. "If they're guilty, they'll be locked up, and the shop closed for further inspection before it's sold on."  
Amy looked away from him and hugged herself. She hadn't been working in that shop long, but the two leopards seemed so innocent. Clara, with her blue sparkling eyes, always seemed so cheerful, whereas Sasha seemed more down to earth. It was hard to believe those two girls would be involved in something so nefarious.

She turned off the main road onto a smaller, quieter street. Her flat was a short walk away from them now, but something caused her to falter and drew Espio's eye back to her. Standing a few feet away from them were Sonic and Sally, leaving the little bistro across from her home. A strange, loneliness washed over her that caused her pace to falter, but it was immediately extinguished as Espio placed a hand on her shoulder and steered her across the street towards her flat.

She glanced back over her shoulder at the blue hedgehog as he vanished around the corner, Sally's giggles ringing in the air and fading away as they moved out of sight.

"Are you all right?" Espio asked.

She looked up at him briefly and shook her head with a sigh. "I'm fine."

"Come on, Amy. I know fine when I see it, and you're not fine."  
"I _am_." She opened her gate and marched towards the door, fumbling in her bag for her card key. "Believe me, it's been more than a year. I'm over it."

"Your expression says otherwise." He paused behind her and she caught his reflection in the glass. He crossed his arms and leant against the fence. "We all know you've been in love with the guy since you were what... twelve?"

"Thirteen. And I'm over it." She raised her card key to the panel and stopped, lowering her hand again with a sigh. The light turned green, making a shrill beep, but all she did was stare at the door. Over it... "It's not like I have much choice."  
She spotted his reflection raising an eyebrow, not making any effort to move away. She placed a hand on the glass and sighed.

"I mean, would I rather he'd returned my feelings? Sure." She shrugged. "But he didn't. Thinking back, he probably thought I was nothing more than an annoying fangirl. They were both probably too scared to tell me they'd got together. They've been together over a year, I know it's serious. It's pretty obvious to anyone. They're even engaged!"

"What?" Espio leapt back from the fence, not taking his eyes off her.

"Yeh. It's been a week now."

"I didn't even know..."  
"Huh." She chuckled drily and flicked her card key against her fingers. "If it weren't for the fact that Tails told Cream, neither would I."

Espio clenched his fists and glanced away from her. "So yet again they didn't tell you."

"Exactly. It's hard to show you're happy for someone when you're feeling bitter that they don't trust you enough to share something so important to them with you."

"Have you said anything to them?"

She brushed her quills from her eye and looked back over her shoulder at him. "I made them a congratulations card." When he didn't respond, she went on. "They appreciated it, and Sally apologised for not telling me about it sooner. The thing is, I know there's someone else out there for me. I can't keep chasing the same guy forever." She shrugged and gave a small laugh. "I can't keep up with him anyway."

Espio gave her a small smile and leant back on the fence. That odd, fluttery feeling stirred up in her stomach again and she tore her eyes off him to the panel on the wall. She flicked her card at it once more and tugged the door open as it beeped.

"Good night, Amy."

She glanced back and returned his smile before she slipped inside, letting the door click shut behind her.

"Ack!"  
Her heart felt like it was trying to bash its way through her rib cage to run off down the hall and set up home in the skirting board. What on earth had brought all that on? Not once had she considered there was someone else out there for her.

Last week, she'd been sat with Cream sticking ribbon onto a piece of card. She'd written out a cheerful congratulations letter without so much as shedding a tear.

Yes. She could say with all certainty she was over it. Shortly after Sonic and Sally had got together, it was like someone had flicked an off-switch. She'd had absolutely no interest in _anyone_. She'd gone about her life without even thinking about it. Sure, there were times when the blue hedgehog might make her blush, but that was just her. After the pain she'd gone through when she'd spotted them at her party, she _wasn't interested_ any more.

So why confess to someone that she knew there was someone else out there for her? Especially someone who caused a strange stirring feeling in her stomach?

That feeling certainly wasn't alien to her. She knew what it was.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and raced up the stairs to her flat. Just has the dialling tone reached her ears, followed by a familiar high voice, a heavy realisation fell over her.

Bugs.

Everywhere.

"Hang on, Cream, I..."

She shed her coat and rushed into the bathroom, locking the door behind her.

"Amy?" came Cream's voice. "Are you all right? I've been so worried about you! What happened?!"

"I'm fine! I'm fine, I'll explain everything later."

"You sound echoey. Where are you?"

"Oh, I've just locked myself in the bathroom."

"Huh?" She could picture the yellow rabbit blinking her huge eyes in confusion. "Whatever for?"

"Because I don't want them overhearing me." Amy perched herself on the edge of the bath and tried to catch her breath. "I... I think I have a problem."

"Oh, that doesn't sound good! Is it to do with the shop?"  
"No..." She paused to clear her throat, staring blankly at the white bathroom door. The words were there, on the tip of her tongue, forcing their way out before her mind could fully process the situation. "I think I might be developing feelings for someone."

There it was.

Her heart began racing again as it fully sank in. Cream's hysterical cry of 'whaaaaaat?!' seemed to echo from the floor above her.

"Amy," she said quickly, "I'm coming down. Wait right there!"

"Oh, I'm going nowhere..." Amy swallowed drily. Feelings... she'd known it. It was too familiar a feeling. The signs had all been there, and not just on her part. That camera footage of Espio followed by Knuckles' panicked words as he'd tried to turn the camera off, wanting to look after her, to walk her home. "The problem is, Cream, I think it might be mutual."

...

 **Please R &R! =D**


	8. Date Ninja'd

**A/N - It feels like it's been ages since I submitted, but I only posted chapter 7 on Monday...**

 **Disclaimer - I do NOT own Sonic the Hedgehog or any of its characters!**

8 – Date Ninja'd

Amy and Cream were sat in her bathroom with their backs against the bath, a little blanket laid out in front of them with a pink tea set stood neatly on top of it. Two steaming cups of tea stood in front of them beside a plate of biscuits and cake.

"I don't believe it," said Cream. "It's... a little much to take in." She looked over at Amy. "You look rather pale, are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm just shocked." Amy placed a hand to her chest as she stared down into her steaming mug. "I was really not expecting this."

"I don't think it would be as exciting if you were expecting it, Amy."

Exciting? She wasn't sure if that would be the word she'd use to describe it. Terrifying? No... that wasn't right either. 'Unexpected' seemed to be the best option right now.

Or 'overwhelming'.

"What are you going to do?" Cream asked. "You have to go and see him tomorrow."  
Amy's heart lurched in her chest and started it's frantic banging against her ribs. All the colour suddenly rushed back into her face in a wave of prickling heat and she almost leapt to her feet in a panic.

"Oh my goodness, you're right!" She placed a hand over her mouth and leant back against the bath's cool surface. "I... I don't know if I can!"  
"You have to! They need you!" Cream gave her an encouraging fist pump. "You're a detective now!"

"I'm not a detective, I'm just a... a..." Amy stared at the door for a moment. "Wait, what am I?" She shook her head sharply and waved a hand. "Argh, it's not time to worry about that now! What do I _do_?! If I keep getting all flustered like this, he's going to figure _something_ out!"

"Maybe that would be a good thing? You said you thought the feeling was mutual." Cream sipped at her tea.

"Yes..."

"And from the sounds of it, Mister Knuckles thinks the same." The yellow rabbit turned her blue eyes onto her. "Maybe you could talk to him?"

Amy almost spilled her drink. "I'm not talking to Knuckles about this!"

"Why not?"

"I just don't get the impression he's exactly the kind of guy to sit and talk about a romantic comedy."

Cream inclined her head on one side with a thoughtful noise. "I just think if he knows Espio's feelings for certain, it would save you some embarrassment if you're wrong."

Amy tensed and looked away from her. "Yes, and cause me some when he finds out I have feelings for Espio and would probably tease me to no end."  
"I don't know if he'd tease you about it." Cream placed her cup back down and gazed thoughtfully at the blanket. "But... if you're worried, then... maybe you need to find out yourself." She glanced back up at Amy. "Use your detective skills."

Amy gave a mock sigh. "I'm not a detective."  
Cream chuckled and picked up a slice of cake. "Well, I think it's cute." She gave her a smile. "And if you do find out he likes you, you could have a boyfriend!"

Tea almost came out of Amy's nose. She choked and took a napkin from Cream gratefully to dab at her face.

Boyfriend? Not once in her life had she ever thought of Espio as a boyfriend.

"But... but what if I'm wrong?" she choked.

Cream swallowed a small mouthful of cake. "I don't think you are."

"Maybe..."

She leant forward on her knees and placed her head on her arms. Maybe she wasn't mistaken after all. He had walked her home, watched over her when she was recovering... but what if he just cared? What if that's all it was?

She needed to find out before her head span off her shoulders.

"I think I have an idea." She pushed herself back up and faced Cream. "I'm going to ask him to come out with me."

Cream's eyes widened impossibly large. Amy was convinced they sparkled. "Like a _date_?!"

Amy smiled and nodded. "Yes."

The squeal that came out of the little rabbit caused Amy to spin and face the door. The room wasn't exactly sound proof. The wire taps might have picked that up. She pictured the Chaotix barging into her home, looking for the source of the 'damsel in distress' scream only to find a giggling rabbit and her hedgehog friend drinking tea in the bathroom.

She could see Vector crossing his arms in her mind. ' _Not exactly the setting for a tea party!_ '

Cream turned to her and grinned widely. "So where? What will you do?"

"Huh." Amy scratched her chin and looked up at the ceiling. "Good question. Maybe ice cream?"

...

Amy didn't sleep.

And to add insult to injury, time seemed to creep by at a snail's pace.

When light leaked through her window her message tone rang, cutting through the silence like a siren. She sat up quickly and grabbed her phone, spotting Vector's name slap in the middle of her screen.

Her heart began to race again when she realised, in a mere two hours, she'd be pulling Espio aside to ask a question she was slowly beginning to dread.

She opened the message... and her heart sank.

 _'Morning meeting is off, so go straight to the shop. Gotta go to the lab with those samples and since the van's out of action we've got to get the train. No one will be in the office. See you this evening for our normal meeting._ '

She felt her jaw tense.

A full day. A full day with this hanging over her. She looked over at her alarm clock. 6:59. It felt like time had gone so slow it had decided to move backwards.

"Come on, Amy," she told herself. "You can do this. Just... ten hours. That's all you've got to wait!"

Ten hours... ten always seemed like a huge number as a child. Now here it was again, as imposing as ever.

Maybe a shower, some toast and a bit of morning TV would make her feel better?

 **A shower, some toast and a bit of morning TV later...**

Nope.

She strolled out of the door and glanced up and down the street. Nothing seemed amiss. It was just an ordinary day like any other. Except she was going to 'work' in a shop that sold dangerous sweets, and later on would be confessing feelings to someone.

From one extreme to the next.

A strange, strained noise leaked out between her teeth and she pushed herself down the road towards the town centre and that little shop that had started all this. The candy pink and blue striped canopy over the door seemed so innocent at first glance. Already customers were waiting outside for it to open, and Clara stood at the door pulling up the shutter while Sasha explained they'd need to wait another ten minutes for them to open.

When the two leopards spotted Amy they smiled broadly.

"You look well!" Sasha beamed. "It's great to have you back, it looks like we're going to be busy today."

Amy eyed the queue cautiously and aimed a forced smile at the leopard. "Well, you have my help."  
"Does that mean you're gonna open earlier?" a little mouse girl asked.

Sasha shook her head but the smile didn't leave her face. "No. You'll still have to wait."

"But it'll be worth it!" quipped Clara.

She unlocked the door and let both Sasha and Amy enter before she locked it again behind them.

The store was immaculate. All the sweets were neatly laid out on the shelves, not a single one out of place. When Amy entered the store room, she found stacks of neatly piled boxes filled with fresh and new stock. It didn't look like anyone had ever stepped foot in the shop. This was how it had been whenever she'd turned up in the morning, and each time it surprised her. How much time did Clara and Sasha spend tidying up when she left?

"We have some new chocolates in today." Sasha's voice startled her slightly.

She looked round to face the leopard and forced another smile. "Really?"

"Yes. Two new flavours – mint and rose."

"Rose?" Amy's eyes widened. "They make rose flavoured chocolate?"

Sasha chuckled. "They make rose flavoured sweets! This new one is flavoured with rose water and has chunks of Turkish delight inside."

Amy looked at the stack of boxes. She could see it now. Three of them had 'Rose' written on them in marker pen. It would have sounded delicious if it hadn't been so dangerous.

"They arrived this morning before we opened shop, so we've not got them out yet," Sasha explained. "Clara's clearing some space for them, so focus on the jelly sweets for now until we can fit this new selection in."  
Amy nodded and grabbed a trolley, filling it with jelly sweets. When she got back onto the shop floor and looked at the tidy shelves all neatly stuffed with sweets, one question filled her mind.

' _Where?_ '

...

Amy resigned herself to dusting down the clean shelves and fitting sweets as and where they would fit, normally after they'd been swarmed by customers. She could feel her phone in her dress pocket, seemingly dormant and unresponsive. She battled the urge to send a message to ask how the lab visit had gone. She didn't know why she was so keen to hear about it anyway since they'd fill her in on the information when she met them that evening.

Her heart flipped at the thought of that meeting, drawing ever closer, facing her with the inevitable. She wasn't sure if she was excited or terrified.

"Amy!" Clara waved at her from the chocolate stand.

Lunch had been and gone before the snow leopard had finally been able to finish clearing room on the display. Two rows had been vacated for the new selection, and a large sign with 'NEW' printed in the same font as the shop's sign hung on each row.

"You can fill these now," she said with a smile. "How exciting! I bet these will fly off the shelves!"  
Amy returned her smile, if only to cover up the daunting realisation that this would sadly be the case. Each customer in the shop at that moment was an unsuspecting victim.

She followed Clara into the store room and gathered up two boxes of the new chocolates, but before she could leave, Sasha intersected them at the door.

"Could you take the customers please, Clara?"

"Of course!" The snow leopard skipped past her and beamed from the swarming cash register. "Good afternoon! Who's next?"

"Amy." Sasha turned back to her and nudged her back into the store room. "I need to ask you something."

"Erm!" The pink hedgehog's heart began to run a marathon. They knew! They knew she knew! "What is it?"

"You remember we saw you in the park the other day?"

"Yes?" They knew, they knew, they knew!  
This was it... This was how she was going to die...

"You were with someone," Sasha went on. "A young man?"

"Espio?" Amy blinked in confusion. Where was she going with this?

Sasha fixed her blue eyes on hers. "Was he your boyfriend?"

"Ahh!" Amy almost dropped the box in her arms. "N-no! No, he's not, he's..."

"Just a friend?" Sasha smiled and leant against the wall. "Oh good. I don't know what I would have said if you'd said yes."

Amy felt her blood begin to boil. What was she playing at?

"Why?" she asked, somewhat calmly.

"Well, you see, I thought he was incredibly cute." She folded her arms behind her back and leant towards her. "I was hoping you might get him to call me." She reached into her pocket and held out a small, rectangle card.

Amy took it and scanned over it. It looked like an ordinary business card with the Sugar Snow logo in the top left corner. Sasha's name was written in elegant lettering, and below it was what Amy assumed to be her phone number.

She looked back up at the leopard girl. "You... want to offer him a job?"

Sasha laughed lightly. "No, no! I want to offer him a date!"  
Amy's heart shot through her stomach. A date? But... that was what _she_ wanted to do!  
That small cardboard rectangle felt like it was burning into her fingers, but all she could do was stare at it, aghast.

"Is there a problem?" Sasha asked. "You look very confused."

"No..." Amy continued to stare at the phone number. "No problem. I'll talk to him."

She slipped the card into her dress pocket and gave the leopard a small, innocent smile. Sasha returned it and followed her out of the store room.

"Thank you, Amy. I look forward to hearing from him."

Those words were so innocent, yet she felt her quills stand on end. She kept her focus on those two empty rows, and tried to keep up with the frantic customers who practically tore the new produce from her hands before it even touched the shelf.

...

Five o clock finally came round. As the last of the customers trickled out of the shop, Amy went into the office to gather her bag. Sasha's frame loomed beside it as she rummaged through the drawer for the keys. She glanced back at Amy briefly and turned back to the desk.

"Are you leaving?" she asked.

"Yes. It's five." Amy popped her bag on her shoulder. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Take care, Amy. And don't forget." She flashed her a smile. "Give your friend my card. I'll be waiting for his call."

A bitter taste filled Amy's mouth as she turned to leave the office. Clara's cheerful voice rang out as she waved farewell to her. The rumble of traffic and the gentle wind was a breath of fresh air after the stifling, hot and busy atmosphere of the little shop. She turned and headed back down West Street, her mind filled with the image of that business card. She'd stared at it for so long she was convinced Sasha's phone number was chiselled permanently into her mind.

Shortly after realising her feelings, and deciding to act on them, another girl hands her a business card with the intention of asking out the same guy... what were the odds?

She clenched her fist, feeling her Piko Piko Hammer appear inside it. Her entire body was beginning to shake as a low growl rose in her throat, and she warred with the urge to turn back to the shop in a blind fury.

"Amy!"  
With a 'pop' the hammer vanished and she turned on the spot, almost ending up nose to nose with the same man she'd just been thinking about. Her heart leapt into her throat and she hopped backwards, tripping over her own feet and stumbling on the edge of the curb. Horns blared from the traffic as cars swerved to dodge her. Before she could fall into them, a warm hand closed around her wrist as Espio yanked her towards him, away from the flow of cars. He wrapped his arm protectively around her and her feet left the floor as he steered her away from the road, setting her back down again once she was out of harm's way.

"Are you all right, Amy?" His breath tickled her face.

All right? Her blush probably spread to her ears!

When he'd spun her out of the way of the traffic, she'd placed her hand on his chest to steady herself, and now she was becoming increasingly aware it was still there, and the longer she left it there the more it would seem like it wasn't an innocent accident, but she couldn't move. The shock had frozen her like a statue. She couldn't even meet his eyes. What was he doing here? She wanted to ask, but her words came out in an incoherent stammer drowned out by the rumbling traffic.

"I'm sorry." He moved his hand from her back and placed it over hers, causing her breath to catch in her throat. "I didn't mean to startle you." His warm hand released hers as he took a step back, letting it fall limply to her side. "You seem to have had a bad day, and I was trying to stop you going on a hammer rampage."

"I'm fine."

Her voice came out as a choked gasp. She placed a hand to her chest and took a couple of breaths to gather herself. Her heart was still racing, and she could feel him watching her despite how much she tried to distract herself by watching the cars trundle by. After a painfully slow day, everything seemed to be happening all at once.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

She nodded stiffly and jerked her head to glance at him. "Yes. Just... stunned, that's all."

"I can understand that. You almost ended up under a car." He brushed his hand over his head and sighed, looking back at the road. "I'm sorry about that."

"Don't worry about it, I'm fine."

She still couldn't meet his eye. The embarrassment was too much. All she wanted to do was walk, just walk, clear her head and get to the office to go over her day.

' _And don't forget. Give your friend my card._ '

She grimaced. How was she going to bring that up? Should she even mention it? Surely they'd want to know.

"Come on, we need to-" He placed a hand on her shoulder and she jumped with a squeak. He leapt back from her as though he'd been stung and stared at her for a moment before breaking into a laugh. "Static shock? Come on, while the traffic's waiting. Let's get to the office."

She gave a stiff nod and followed him across the road. Once again, time seemed to drag. The walk back felt deceptively long. Now she was with him, the thought of asking him on a date caused her quills to stand on end. She'd made enough of a fool of herself in the past five minutes to last her a month.

"So what happened?" Espio asked her. "You seem very tense, and something must have triggered you to get your hammer out."

Yes... it had. But what would she even say? Was it worth even mentioning? If she said nothing, and didn't give him the card, Sasha would surely find out, or at least ask her about it. That woman was their suspect. Both her and her sister were under investigation, and there was a chance they already suspected that. They probably suspected she herself knew something, and in turn that Espio knew something. With that thought in her mind, the situation was becoming questionable. Did she really want a date at all?

"Actually." She looked up at him. "I think I'll wait until we're all together."

He raised an eyebrow. "Huh. It sounds serious."

She stifled a grimace and turned her attention back on walking. Serious. Now she was beginning to question Sasha's motives, it very well may be.

They continued on in silence, Espio choosing not to press her any further. The silence would have been awkward if her head wasn't spinning.

After her chat with Cream, she'd been waiting anxiously all day for this moment, and it wasn't going remotely how she'd pictured it.

She froze in place as he grabbed her shoulder and looked back at him stiffly.

"We're here." He nodded to the dingy building on their right.

She turned slowly to see the old worn door to the Chaotix's office. She'd walked straight past it.

"Your spaceyness is making me worry about what happened in that shop today."

It took a moment for the panel below the buzzer to recognise his card key. When the door clicked open, he stood aside to let her enter.

The moment she stepped into the office, Vector, Charmy and Knuckles all looked up at her, and it was written all over the crocodile's face that he could tell there was something wrong.

"Amy's got some news for us," Espio announced as he closed the door.

"Oh really?" Vector leant back in his desk chair and watched the pink hedgehog as she slumped into the sofa beside Knuckles. "Big news, I hope. We have a deadline, yanno."

Amy put her head in her hands and sighed. "I don't think you can really give an investigation like this a deadline."  
"Well, we've got one." Vector kicked his feet up onto the desk and crossed his arms. "So. What's the news?"

She looked at each of the Chaotix in turn, ending with Espio.

"Sasha asked me a surprising question," she said.

They all stared back at her, urging her on. Was she really going to do this? Blow the opportunity she'd been waiting all day for?

She reached into her pocket and pulled out the leopard's business card. She quickly cast her eyes over it, taking in the elegant writing and her phone number standing out from the white background.

Apparently so.

She held it out to the chameleon. "She wants you to call her."

"Huh?" He took it from her and stared at it as though he'd never seen a business card before in his life. "What for?"

She looked away from him and tried her best not to look disappointed. "She wants a date."

"Eh?!" Both Charmy and Knuckles leapt from their seats.

Espio almost dropped the business card as though it had caught fire. He stared at Amy wordlessly.

"You're not serious?" Knuckles gasped. "She's the suspect!"

Vector let out a long whistle. "Well this _is_ interesting."

"Very." Espio looked back down at Sasha's card.

"So what are you going to do?" Vector asked. "There's no saying the girl's being legitimate."

"Exactly," said Knuckles. "She might be on to you. It could be a trap."

"It also might not be," added Charmy. "She probably just likes you."

The bee's words caused Amy to bristle. She frowned and looked away, distracting herself by watching a small spider crawl across the door handle of the closet.

"I wouldn't be so hasty, Charmy," said Knuckles. "How does she even know about you?"  
"We ran into her in the park two days ago," Espio explained. "Amy and I had gone for a walk and they just happened to be there."

"Sounds fishy to me," said Vector.

Knuckles nodded. "I'm sticking with my judgement on this one."

"However!" The crocodile leant forwards on his desk and linked his fingers together.

Amy cringed. She didn't like the sound of that 'however'.

"This may be a great way to get some information," he went on. "If you go along with this, she may end up spilling something useful."

"I thought that," said Espio. "But like Knuckles said-"

"Yes, I heard him. That's why you're going to be careful."

Espio grunted. "I take it I'm going then?"

Vector flashed him a grin. "With bells on."

"Ooh!" Charmy shot into the air and zipped towards the bedrooms. "I'll go find your best tie."

Amy sighed and leant on her hand. No. It wasn't going how she'd pictured it at all.

...

 **Please R &R! =D**


	9. Heart to Heart

**A/N - Here it is! Chapter 9! I hope you enjoy =D thanks again to all reviews, faves and follows!**

 **Disclaimer - I do NOT own Sonic the Hedgehog or any of its characters!**

9 – Heart to Heart

A quick, sharp tap resounded through the bedroom, dragging Amy out of a light slumber. She propped herself up, daring not to breath as she scanned the dark room. Nothing stirred. All she could hear now was the gentle ticking off her clock which seemed oddly loud to her now, accompanied by a heavy rainfall that pitter-pattered against the window as the gale-force wind struck against it.

Rain. That's all it was. Her imagination was getting the better of her. She was about to lie back down and close her eyes when the sound cut through the air once more. A quick, urgent tap which seemed to be coming from her window. She propped herself up again and stared questioningly at the pink curtains. She was two floors up! Who would be knocking at her window?

With her hammer in hand, she ventured over to it, pausing only to pull her dressing gown on over her pink pyjamas. That tap sounded again just as she whizzed the curtain aside, revealing a familiar silhouette clinging to the wall beside the glass. His long dreads blew in the strong wind and Amy questioned briefly how he was managing to cling to the wall and not been whisked off with it.

She pulled the window open and offered her hand to the echidna to help him inside. He landed beside her, dripping water onto the laminated floor, then took the window from her and forced it shut against the wind, stopping the weather's invasion of her small apartment.

"What are you doing here at this hour?" she hissed.

"I had to see you, and it couldn't wait."

"Really?" Amy frowned and moved over to her clock and flicked on the bedside lamp. "It couldn't wait another five hours?"

"No."

Amy reached into her closet and tossed him a towel. "Why?"

Knuckles stared at her for a moment and looked away, towelling off his long quills. "Because I'm not meant to be here."

She crossed her arms and puffed out her cheeks in frustration. "Stop talking in riddles and tell me why you appeared at my window at two in the morning!"

"It's about that 'date'."

All tension left her body and she slumped down onto the edge of her bed. "Oh..."

"Yeh, it worries me as well." He glanced away and scratched his head. "I have a plan, but we can't let the others know."

"Then you should know there are wire taps in this room." She leant back on her hands and looked at him. "They're going to know you've been here."

He waved a hand in dismissal. "Already dealt with. I'm meant to be manning the tape deck. I paused it and came over here. Nothing will be recorded."

Her nose crinkled. "Won't they notice?"

"Only if they go over it carefully, and by then we should have solved this case. Besides, they'll probably just think it's an error on the tape."

"So what's your plan?"

"My plan is someone goes with them."

"We covered that! Vector doesn't want anyone interfering! He's worried it'll blow our cover!"  
"Yes, but what he fails to realise is those girls haven't met _me_!" His fist thudded against his chest. "I tried to tell him that, and he's still having none of it! But I don't want my friend to go into a potentially dangerous situation without any backup!"

Amy felt her quills stand on end and she leant forward in her seat. "Neither do I!"

Every worst-case scenario had played through her mind in the space of an instant. She stared at Knuckles for a moment trying to catch her breath and he returned her stare in silence. Finally, he gave her a nod and leant back against the wall.

"So you're with me?" he asked.

"I _agree_ with you, but I don't have a clue what your plan is."

"I did some snooping around afterwards," he explained. "I found out what restaurant he booked by tracing the call. Eight pm tomorrow at the bistro across your street."

He nodded at the window and Amy's blood went cold. Why _there_ of all places?

"I went in myself and told them I wanted a booking. It didn't take long to get hold of their booking folder and find out what time and what table, so I requested a booth two tables away from theirs."

"And?"

"And I'll pick you up tonight at seven thirty."

Her jaw dropped and a loud 'what?!' flew out of her mouth.

"Why do you want me?" she squeaked. "Go alone!"

He bristled. "Not a chance! A man doesn't eat alone in a restaurant!"

"But why me? They _know_ me! If she sees me who knows what she'll try to do!"

"I've already got it covered," he said through gritted teeth. "You'll just have to trust me."

She let out a flustered sigh and looked away. "Fine."  
"Besides," he said. "I won't let any harm come to you. I can promise you that."  
She looked back at him, but he was staring out of the window. He gave a small sigh and kicked himself back from the wall.

"I should leave now. I don't want the gap to be _too_ long in the recording."

"Yeh." She stood up and joined his side. "Are you going to be okay in that storm?"

"I've dealt with worse weather." He handed her the towel and pulled the window open. "See you later."

Before she could say her goodbye, he kicked off from the windowsill and was caught in the wind as he arced towards the street. She watched him vanish and closed the window again, shutting out the storm. The room felt oddly quiet now.

Her life had taken yet another dramatic turn. From a freedom fighter to a detective, and now a spy? She wouldn't be surprised if this time next week she was dropped unexpectedly into the position of 'secret agent'.

...

That day's shift had been difficult. Amy was truly glad she didn't need to stay for the entire afternoon.

The whole morning, Sasha had been going on about her 'date' that evening – what she would wear, where they were going, how excited she was. Clara's eyes had sparkled with excitement at every word and she'd tried desperately to get Amy in on the conversation, to which she would just force a giggle and wave her away.

Two o clock couldn't come round fast enough. As soon as she was able, she rushed back home to have a relaxing cup of tea and to try her best to take her mind off things until evening.

She was about to start the third movie of the afternoon when the message tone rang on her phone. She picked it up to find a message from Cream saying:

'I just got your text! What happened?!'

That reminded her – she'd sent one this morning to update her on her 'progress'. She gave a small sigh and fired out a reply.

'Are you in? I don't fancy another bathroom camp-out.'

'Too late. I'm coming down with cookies.'

Five minutes later, they were sat in the bathroom once more eating Cream's freshly baked cookies. They were still warm, making the room smell like a bakery.

"So that's what happened." Cream sighed sadly, and Cheese copied her. "When you said you were going on a date with Mister Knuckles instead, I was rather confused."

"Cha-chao!"

She nibbled at her cookie. "I can't believe it. What are the odds?"

"I know," said Amy.

"You could have said 'no' to her."

Amy clenched her jaw. Why didn't she say no? The whole thing had thrown her off guard. Now she had to go out and watch them chatting, laughing...

"What are you going to wear?" Cream asked.

"Huh?" Amy snapped back to reality. "Wear? I... I've not really thought about it."

"Well you should look amazing!"

"It's not a real date!"

Cream leant back on her hands and smiled. "But he might see you."

"He's not meant to... The idea is we're spying."

Cream shrugged. "You're in the same restaurant. He might still see you."

If Amy could have shrunk down and hidden in the plate of cookies, she would have. This night would probably be an embarrassing disaster.

"I'm going to go and leave you to get ready," said Cream. "It won't be long until he gets here now."  
Amy checked the time. It had already turned six-thirty. That gave her just over an hour to get ready. She looked up as Cream gathered the remaining cookies.

The yellow rabbit smiled broadly. "Tell me all about it! Okay?"

Amy nodded and smiled back. "Okay."

Ten minutes later, she was standing in her room staring at three different outfits. A blue skirt with a frilly top, a little black dress, and a fitted red one.

She was leaning towards the red one.

...

The buzzer rang and Amy sprinted down the stairs, struggling to straighten the red bow on her headband while trying to keep her bag on her shoulder.

Knuckles was waiting on the porch and his jaw almost hit the floor when she stepped outside. He looked her up and down and cleared his throat, looking away.

"It's not a black-tie restaurant you know."  
She puffed out her cheeks and crossed her arms. "Clearly. You didn't get dressed up at all!"

"Whatever. Let's get this over with."

She tugged her bag onto her shoulder and followed him across the street to the little bistro. Heavy puddles lined the street, disturbed by a light drizzle that dampened Amy's quills. The air inside the restaurant enveloped them with warmth, filled with jaunty jazz music. A polecat greeted them when they entered and gave them a polite smile.

"Do you have a reservation?" he asked.

"Yes, for two," said Knuckles. "It will be under 'Red'."

The polecat found his name on the list and led them to a small booth. A large, potted palm tree stood beside it, its long leaves leaning down over one of the seats. Amy shimmied in beside it while Knuckles fell into the seat opposite her.

"Red?" she asked quietly once the waiter was out of earshot.

"Yeh. I wasn't risking using my real name in case Espio saw it." He stood back up and moved over to the large plant. He nodded towards a table two down from them. "That's where they'll be."

Amy stared at it as though it had offended her. It didn't go unnoticed. Knuckles eyed her curiously as he tugged the potted plant towards their table, its long leaves obscuring most of the view of the other tables and also a fair bit of Amy.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Covering up." He moved back into his seat and sank down in it. "This is why I chose this booth. With the high arms of the chairs and that plant, it allows us to remain unseen."

She couldn't help but feel slightly impressed. Right now, things were beginning to feel more like a mystery novel than reality.

She gave herself a shake and looked down at the menu. It wasn't her first time here, she'd been here a few times. But for some reason, everything had fallen out of her head, including the pronunciation for some of the more elaborate dishes.

"Right this way!" The polecat waiter strolled into view, leading two new customers.

Amy's heart leapt into her throat and she ducked further behind the palm leaves. Sasha followed close to the polecat, followed by Espio who looked over the restaurant as though he was searching for something.

' _Is he looking for us?_ ' Amy found herself thinking. ' _Does he know?!_ '

The waiter pulled out the chair for Sasha and handed each of them a menu. Espio thanked him and shrugged off the leather coat he'd been wearing.

"I'll be back soon with your wine list," said the waiter.

Amy leapt slightly as the polecat turned towards them. He beamed and stood beside the plant, eyeing it curiously. He pointed to it and opened his mouth but Knuckles cut him off with a sharp wave.

The polecat shrugged and pulled out his notepad. "Are you ready to order?"

"Yes," said Knuckles. "Ladies first."

"I, er..." Amy stared blankly at the menu. "Er... spaghetti..."

"Meatballs?" the waiter asked.

"Sure."

Knuckles handed his menu back. "I'll just have a burger and fries."

"Coming up." The polecat turned and strode away.

Knuckles stared at her and shook his head. "What's the matter with you? Calm down."

She flinched. "I can't. I've never spied on anyone before."

"It's not spying. It's keeping a look out."

"I've never done that before either."

"Really?" He leant back and crossed his arms. "Not even on Sonic and Sally?"

She grunted. "If I'd done that I'd have known they were together. Besides, Sally isn't a dangerous criminal."

He shrugged and nodded to Sasha. "We don't know if she is yet."

Amy glanced over at them. Already they were giggling as Espio poured out two glasses of wine. She looked away with a jerk and stared down at a menu which had appeared in her hands. It listed sweet desserts and various hot drinks.

"You haven't had your mains yet."

She looked up at Knuckles and stuttered.

He took the menu from her. "Are you all right?"

She diverted her eyes and ran a hand through her quills, giving out a flustered sigh. "To be honest, no."  
"Huh. I get it."  
She stared back at him. "Get what?"

"You're all dressed up, clearly uncomfortable, and with the leers you've been firing at that table, it's pretty obvious." He nodded over to Sasha and Espio. "You'd rather be over there, in place of that little leopard girl."

"Eh!?" Amy felt her face heat up so much she was certain it would be visible through the palm's green leaves.

Knuckles gave an anxious look at the duo. Her expletive had been rather loud, and she covered her mouth, following his gaze. The leopard girl's ears didn't so much as twitch.

"Be careful," he growled.

Amy nodded and sank down further in her seat.

The waiter returned, placing their meals down in front of them, along with a jug of water. She stared at her meal, suddenly regretting ordering something so big. Her appetite had gone out of the window. She looked up at Knuckles as he picked up a fry.

"Wha-what makes you think...?"

"It's obvious," he said. "It doesn't take a genius to figure it out."

"So you think I..." She looked over at Espio.

The chameleon raised his glass to clink against Sasha's.

Knuckles grunted. "You really need to start finishing your sentences."

She stared back down at her plate and fiddled her fingers together. "I can't. I don't think I've really admitted it to myself yet."

"Huh." He took a bite out of his burger. "Makes a nice change to Sonic, anyway."

"What's that supposed to mean!?"

He looked away from her quickly and cleared his throat. "Nothing. Forget it."

She picked up a fork and sighed as she nudged a meatball along her plate. "Besides. Wouldn't you rather be here with someone else? Like Rouge, maybe?"

"Rouge!?" His eyes widened and he chuckled, dismissing her with a wave. "Don't be ridiculous."

"What? You _don't_ like her?"

"No. That bat ain't my type."

"Huh." She wound spaghetti around her fork as she tried to work this out. "But she's strong, independent, you banter with her a lot."

"Argue."

"I thought you got on, in a weird way."

He snorted. "I think your description answered your own question."  
"Really?" She looked up and let out a small squeak as he pushed his empty plate away. "Do you have a void for a stomach?"

He stared at her and leant on his hand.

"Anyway." She placed her full fork back down. "If it's not Rouge, then what is your type?"

"Why are you asking me this?" he grunted.

"Because I need distracting." She fought the urge to look over at the laughter two tables down.

He sighed and looked away from her. "Honestly? Think the opposite of Rouge." He paused. "Someone who needs me, who I can protect."

Amy didn't know what to say. It kind of made sense, given he spent the majority of his time looking after the master emerald, but it wasn't what she expected at all.

He glanced her out of the corner of his eye. "You seem surprised?" He turned and leant back in his seat, running a hand over his face. "When is this gonna end? They eat at a snail's pace."

She looked over at them, catching Sasha reach out and take one of Espio's hands. Her quills bristled and she looked away, pushing her plate aside.

"Not hungry?" Knuckles asked.

"No. Excuse me, I need to run to the bathroom."  
He dived across the table to grab her arm before she could push the leaves of the palm tree aside.

"Idiot!" he hissed. "Go the other way!"

She frowned at him and pushed his hand away. Of course it made sense. She was being a complete flake. She grimaced at her own idiocy and slid along the bench to the opposite end of the table.

A sign for the bathroom led her to the bar where people were sat waiting for a table. She found it odd, since the one right next to them was vacant. It would have been nice to have an extra couple or a family blocking out the view of what could possibly be one of the most painful scenes of her life.

She slipped into the bathroom and went to the sink, leaning on it as she stared into the mirror. Staring back at her was the face of a pink hedgehog on the brink of tears.

"Come on, Amy," she told the reflection. "You can do this." Her voice cracked.

Why was Sasha doing this? Did she know she was there, seeing everything? No... of course she didn't. They were hiding. It was perfectly reasonable for a girl to want to go on a date, criminal or not. There was every chance she didn't know Espio was a detective, or one that suspected her of selling suspicious sweets.

And she'd asked her first.

Besides, she should go back out there. What if something went amiss and she was cooped up in the bathroom crying like a baby?

She took a deep breath and stood back from the mirror. A little breather. That was all she needed.

The bustling voices and jazz music filled her ears as she strolled back out into the restaurant. She brushed down her dress and sped up to rejoin Knuckles...

"Amy."

…then froze.

No one was there at first glance, but she could just make out Espio standing by the door to the men's bathroom.

"Ah! I'm sorry," she said quickly. "I'm here with-"

"Knuckles, I know." He paused. "I guess you're keeping an eye on things?"

"How did you know we were here?" she asked.

"Easy. I followed him last night."

She flinched. It was hard to tell if he was unhappy with them or not.

"I've not told the others," he went on. "I appreciate you two being here, just in case. Just don't let her see you, okay?"  
A flood of relief flowed through her and she gave him a smile. "You've got it."

She turned to walk away, but his voice froze her again.

"You look amazing, Amy."

Heat spread across her face and she turned round, but there was no sight of him. She took a couple of deep breaths and walked briskly back to her table, making sure she stayed out of sight of Sasha.

When she slipped back into her seat, Knuckles raised an eyebrow at her.

"Oh wonderful," he said. "What did you do now?"

She stuttered and rubbed at her face, but that was likely making things worse. She took another steadying breath and leant back in her seat.

"I didn't _do_ anything."

The look on his face told her he didn't believe her. But every care had gone out of the window. She felt a lot lighter now. She looked over at the other table, Sasha, alone, waiting for Espio to return. The leopard leant across the table to pop the small menu back in its stand, but knocked Espio's glass, causing it to wobble precariously. She caught it quickly and set it back in its spot, managing with some skill to not let any of the wine spill onto the table. She gave a small sigh of relief as she sat back in her chair, then a smile spread across her face as she spotted Espio returning to the table.

"I think I'm ready for dessert," she said.

"Dessert?" He laughed. "Don't you work in a sweet shop?"

Sasha shrugged. "It's a nice change to have something different once in a while."

Amy and Knuckles exchanged glances.

"She covered that one up nicely," he said. "I reckon she _never_ eats the sweets they sell."

Amy nodded curtly.

"Something happened. What was it?" he asked. "Because you look tickled pink, more so than usual."

"I'm just happy." She watched Espio take a sip of his wine, while Sasha watched with a coy smile. This would have irked her before, but right now it didn't bother her in the slightest. "Can't I be happy without it being questioned?"

He rolled his eyes. "Did you run into him?"

She shrank into her seat and smiled. "Yes."

"So you _did_ do something." Knuckles' face twisted into a frown. "So he knows we're here?"  
"I didn't actively go looking for him," she hissed. "Besides, he already knew. He's happy we're here."  
"How did he already know?" he slumped back in his seat and ran a hand down his face. "Whatever. We've more important things to-"

Amy heard him trail off, but anything he'd said barely registered as the world seemed to go in slow motion. The wine glass Espio had been holding slipped through his fingers and shattered onto the floor in a pool of red. Her heart lurched into her throat as she watched him fall sideways off his chair.

"Espio!"  
She threw the palm plant aside and launched herself off her seat across the restaurant floor. The table between them screeched on the tiles as she shoved it out of the way, bringing the bustling restaurant into a heavy silence.

He hit the floor before she got there.

"Espio!" She placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him a gentle shake. "What happened?"  
Realization was all too plain on his face as he fixed an unfocused gaze onto the leopard girl. Sasha returned it with wide, innocent eyes as she stood beside the table with a hand over her mouth. At some point Knuckles had joined Amy's side and he stood cutting off the leopard's exit which she was making no effort to take.

Amy bristled and rose to her feet, brandishing her hammer. "What did you do?!"  
"Me?!" Sasha squeaked.

"Don't play dumb!" barked Knuckles. "I was watching the table the whole time and no one but the waiter came near it!"

"So why not blame the waiter?!"  
Amy clenched her teeth and looked over at the kitchen. The polecat waiter was stood talking rapidly on the phone, glancing over at their table with his fur on end to such an extent his tail looked like a brush. Anything he said was drowned out by the frightened voices around them while a stoat she assumed was the manager tried to bring order back to his restaurant. She turned back to Sasha.

"He doesn't exactly look guilty."  
Sasha tutted and dropped her innocent demeanour. She darted towards them and dodged Knuckles' grab, ducking under his arm and flitting behind him.

"Not so fast!" He reached out and grabbed her tail.

A loud scream came from the leopard, and Knuckles grunted as a large fist came down on his head, making him release the girl's tail.

Amy span and followed the Echidna's eyes as he rubbed the top of his quills. They caught a glimpse of a yellow polar bear with Sasha tucked under one arm, his red beanie bobbing above the curious heads of the other customers who dared not confront him, instead jumping out of the way so he could slip through the door.

"Great," snarled Knuckles. "Just great!"

He advanced towards the crowd to give chase.

All strength left Amy's body and she dropped to her knees beside the fallen chameleon. "Knuckles?"

He froze and looked back at her, a snarl tugging at his lips, but it melted away as he watched her run a hand over her eyes.

Blaring sirens reached their ears, growing louder as the vehicles turned onto the street, hammering reality into the pink hedgehog's mind.

She lowered her head as tears began to trickle down her face, her grip tightening on Espio's shoulder. "I'm scared."

He raised a shaking hand and placed it over hers. It was meant to be comforting, but it only made her tears flow faster.

Knuckles let out a flustered sigh and looked back at the door. "I understand that, Amy, but someone's got to go after her."

"Okay, everyone, sit down!"

The voice caused Amy to look back. Two badgers dressed in paramedic uniforms were moving through the crowd towards them.

"I understand someone fainted?" one of them asked. He stopped behind Amy and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Stand back, miss."  
Amy obeyed, rising to her feet and taking a step back, not taking her eyes off Espio. The paramedic dropped to his side and looked him over.

"Were you two witnesses?" he asked. "What was he doing before he fainted? He looks to be coming round."

"He didn't faint," explained Knuckles. Amy's heart seemed to be crushed at every word as his explanation confirmed her fears. "I think he was poisoned."

...

 **D= please R &R!**


	10. Putting Pieces Together

**A/N - It felt like this chapter took ages to write!**

 **Disclaimer - I do NOT own Sonic the Hedgehog or any of its characters!**

10 – Putting Pieces Together

"Here." Knuckles handed a steaming paper cup to Amy. "I thought you could use a coffee."

"Thank you." Amy fidgeted on the spot for a moment then sat down on the cold chair. She stared absently into the frothy brown surface. "How much longer do you think we need to wait?"

Knuckles shrugged and sat down next to her. "No idea."

She sipped her hot coffee and looked up as Vector zipped past her, whipping up a breeze as he paced back and forth with his arms crossed. Behind him, lay over three seats, was Charmy, his soft snores filling the otherwise quiet waiting room.

All of them had refused to leave the hospital. After her and Knuckles were refused access to the emergency room, they'd glued themselves to the waiting area and she'd gone from sitting to standing to sitting again, restlessly looking over the fliers on the walls and changing seats like she was playing some kind of imaginary, solo game of musical chairs. It didn't take long for Vector and Charmy to respond to Knuckles' urgent phone call. Within minutes the crocodile burst into the emergency ward, booming a cry of 'Where is he?! What happened?!'

After they'd explained everything, Vector couldn't sit still and Charmy had switched between despair and optimism every ten minutes before he finally fell asleep.

"Excuse me?"

Vector came to an abrupt stop and turned to face the speaker. Amy and Knuckles followed his gaze to a squirrel who was much too bright-eyed for this hour of the morning.

"I can finally give you some news." He looked down at his clip board. "I'm sorry for your wait. We wanted to make sure we flushed out whatever it was before we did a full blood transfusion. The samples we sent off to the lab show no traces of anything, which if it was a poison-"

"Which it was," said Vector.

"Yes, I don't disagree with you." The doctor peered at him over his glasses. "The signs were all there. However, nothing showed up. That narrows it down, but unfortunately doesn't tell us what it was."

Charmy sat propped on one hand as he rubbed his bleary eyes. "Nothing showed up?"

"Yes. Which means we can't administer an antidote."

Amy almost dropped her coffee. "You still need to do that?"

"We need to cover all grounds to make sure it's completely dealt with, since we can't see if there's anything still there. If there is, then it could spread again."

"Then... then do something!"  
"We're doing all we can, but we can't counter something if we don't know what it is."

Vector huffed and crossed his arms. "I think we might be able to shed some light on that. We've been lookin' into a suspicious case, see? The targets we've been followin' have a warehouse beside fields filled with lonely primrose and bright scarlet. Why don't you give those two a try?"

"I.. I can certainly suggest it to our lab department."

The crocodile thumped himself in the chest. "Why don't you take _me_ to your lab department and I'll talk to them myself? We've just had tests run on those two flowers and apparently their poison is notorious for not showing up in the body after a certain length of time!"  
The doctor looked away from him. "Okay. Wait one moment."

He scurried over to the reception desk and picked up the phone, speaking in hushed tones that Amy couldn't work out. Vector stood watching him, blocking her view of the doctor, his foot tapping audibly on the tile floor. She looked back down at her rapidly cooling coffee, trying to quell the sick feeling in her stomach that had been there the second they'd climbed into the ambulance. A heavy hand fell on her shoulder and she jumped, looking up and meeting Knuckles' violet eyes. They weren't cold and steely like they usually were, instead they were somewhat reassuring as he silently tried to tell her everything would be okay. As comforted as she was, she was very aware he didn't know that. None of them did.

"Vector?" came the doctor's voice.

Everyone turned to look at the squirrel as he returned to them.

"I'm afraid you're not permitted to enter the lab, so one of the assistants is coming to you. She's a professional in toxins so she can tell you everything you need to know. I need to get back to the ward."

Vector shrugged. "Sure. How long will she be?"

"She's on her way now. I'll be back with more news later."

Later...

Amy sank down into her seat, clutching her cup in both hands. It was now back to waiting, wondering and worrying. While her mind was reeling through every worse-case scenario and reliving the events at the restaurant, the lab assistant showed up and it took her a moment to process this as Vector's voice rumbled through her jumbled mind.

"... right near the warehouse!"  
"Hmm." A slight tabby cat stood near the crocodile, a hand placed over her mouth in thought. "It's certainly plausible. If she is the culprit then she's got them easy to hand."  
Vector frowned at her. "Then what's stoppin' you administering an antidote?"

"The lonely primrose is easy. Its antidote has no side effects. However, bright scarlet is more complicated. It needs an anti-venom, which is just as toxic itself if it's nothing to counter." The tabby cat shook her head sadly at Vector's raised eyebrow. "We don't really want to risk putting him through another poisoning."  
"Then try the one for lonely primrose and if that don't work then-"

"Wait!" Amy leapt off her seat as an unwelcome idea struck her like a ton of bricks. The rest of the Chaotix and the lab assistant looked round at her all wearing equal expressions of surprise. "What if it's a combination of the two?"

"Huh?" Vector rubbed beneath his headphones. "A combination?"

"Why else would they have two toxic flowers growing nearby?"

"I hate to suggest this, Amy," said Knuckles. "But there's every chance one of them is a red herring."

Vector grunted. "And a nasty one at that."

"If that were the case," said the cat, "then we would need to treat both." Her pocket beeped and she pulled out her phone, scanning over the message quickly.

"I say you give it a try anyway," Vector went on. "He's young and strong, and if you catch anything amiss early enough then that's okay, right?"

"It might cause unnecessary damage." She put her phone back into her pocket and glanced away from him. "But unfortunately, we now don't have any choice. I'm sorry, I'm needed at the lab."

"Hang on!" Vector reached out and grabbed the cat by the shoulder as she turned away. "What do you mean 'unfortunately'? What's goin' on?!"

Amy's heart was hammering at a mile a minute as the small cat fixed Vector with a firm stare.

"The annoying thing about invisible poisons," she said bluntly, "is that you can't see if there's any still left until its effects begin to show. Your friend needs urgent help and I'm going to provide that."

...

The next hour was a blur. Amy couldn't focus, and any conversation that went on around her was nothing more than a drone in the back of her mind. It wasn't until the young squirrel doctor returned wearing a smile on his face that she finally pinged back to reality.

"The treatment was a success," he said. "You're free to see him now, but he's resting."  
It felt like a huge weight lifted off her so much so she thought she might have floated from her seat. She followed Vector and the doctor down the corridor to a small ward empty save for one bed. If it weren't for the IV stood beside it she would have thought the chameleon was just sleeping and would be up and ready in a couple of hours.

Nevertheless, the doctor's words were a comfort.

"So what was the treatment?" Vector asked him. "Which antidote was it?"

He flicked through the papers on his clipboard. "It says here they used both."

"And it worked? Nothing went wrong?"

"Nothing went wrong at all. In fact you could say the turnaround was quite quick."

"Hnn." Vector looked back down at his friend. "Interesting."

Charmy looked up at him. "So it could be like Amy said. It might be a combination."

Vector scratched the back of his head in thought. "Yeh. But at least we know it's one of them."

"However, I do want to say one thing," said the doctor. "Whoever did this wanted to make sure they got rid of him."

Vector's face twisted into a frown as he stared silently down at Espio. Amy followed his gaze. Sasha had wanted him gone. She felt sick to the stomach.

"If I were you, I'd get the police involved," the doctor went on.

"We are the police," grumbled Vector. "We've been on this case for the past fortnight."

"Very well." The doctor gave them a smile. "I'll be back to check on him in the morning. But all being well, he should be able to leave before tomorrow evening."  
The sound of clattering metal and plastic reached her ears and she looked around at Knuckles as he carried a stack of chairs over to them, passing the doctor on his way out. He offered one to Amy and she muttered a thank you as sat down heavily in it. The night was catching up to her now. She stared down at Espio and tears pricked at her eyes again.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled.

"Hmm?" Vector looked round at her from the foot of the bed. "What for?"

"If it weren't for me, this wouldn't have happened."

"Don't be ridiculous, Amy! If it weren't for you, we wouldn't have found out what we now know!"  
"Yes, but at what cost?" She ran a hand over her eyes. The words she'd said had just come out. Her mind was now filling with a dense fog and she felt herself sinking down into the chair.

"Accidents happen," Vector explained.

"Yeh," came Knuckles' voice. "You had no idea this would happen. None of us did."

She gave a small shrug and let her hands fall into her lap. "I still think... it could have been avoided."

Vector crossed his arms and winked at her. "If you wanna build a time machine?"

She chuckled and closed her eyes. That heavy fog took over and before she knew it she had fallen into a dreamless sleep.

...

The bright light from the hospital and the drone of voices woke the pink hedgehog from a deep sleep. She blinked her eyes a few times to adjust to the brightness and pushed her stiff body up from the bed. At some point she'd fallen forwards onto it with her bottom still on the chair. Her back cracked with the movement and she grimaced, raising her left arm in a stretch. It was then she became aware her right arm was still resting on the bed, currently held firmly in place. Espio's fingers were wound through hers, although the chameleon still seemed to be asleep.

She felt her heart flutter, now unwilling to move her hand despite how much her shoulder told her it needed a good pop.

"Ah, you're awake," said Vector.

She looked over at the crocodile. He was gathered at the foot of the bed looking as lively as ever with Knuckles and Charmy. As for the latter two, they looked like they hadn't slept a wink in days.

"You could have woken me," she said.

Vector chuckled. "Nah. You looked so peaceful."

Knuckles looked from her to the sleeping chameleon and seemed about to say something until the door flying open cut him off. They all turned to see an ageing squirrel nurse pushing a breakfast trolley ahead of her.

Her eyes widened when she spotted the group.

"Oh! A full house?" She dodged Charmy with the trolley and brought it to a stop at the other side of the bed and turned to address Espio. "Okay, young man. It's breakfast time."

Espio opened his eyes and looked up at the nurse as she popped the tray on the table. The wheels on the trolley creaked as she strutted back out of the room.

"Good to see you awake, Espio." Vector grinned. "How're you feelin'?"

"Surprised," said Espio as he looked at each of them in turn. "You're all still here."

Amy jerked as he pushed himself up, realising she needed to reclaim her hand all too late. He looked down at it then followed her arm up to her face, his eyes slowly widening as he realised who it was attached to.

He blinked. "Erm..."

"I'm sorry!" Amy tugged her hand back and clasped it in her lap. She tried to stutter an explanation but it just came out as utter word salad which she was almost certain Charmy had managed to record on his voice recorder.

Espio closed his eyes and chuckled, waving a hand at her. "Don't worry about it."

Vector nodded thoughtfully. "I think I heard her say the word 'bacon'. Now I have an appetite. I think I'm gonna see if the cafe here does bacon barms."

Charmy zig-zagged into the air. "Ooh, great idea!"

Vector paused on his way to the door and looked back at Knuckles. "You comin', Knux?"

The echidna looked from Amy to Vector and nodded. "Might as well. Give Espio time to wake up. What about you, Amy?"

Amy glanced at Espio and slid from the chair. "I-"

"Leave her!" Vector laughed and turned away. "Let the love-birds catch up! They don't need us hovering around!"

"Wha'?! No, I..." She felt her face heat up so much she thought she might be glowing. "I need to go home and change. And sleep!"

She zipped past the crocodile and fled from the room, leaving a confused Espio staring after her.

Knuckles frowned and crossed his arms. "Subtle, Vector. Subtle."

The crocodile looked down at him and raised his hands in an innocent shrug. "What?"

...

 **Please R &R! =D**


	11. An Unexpected Visit

**A/N - Almost at the end now! The final chapter should be up by Friday, however since I am planning (hopefully!) to get a new fanfic uploaded Friday or Saturday, then I may upload the final chapter a day early!**

 **Disclaimer - I do NOT own Sonic the Hedgehog or any of its characters!**

11 – An Unexpected Visit

Amy stood in her kitchen, hastily brushing her quills with one hand while buttering toast with the other. It wasn't a task that was proving easy as the toast kept sliding around the plate and the butter was becoming less of a spread and more of a melting mound in the centre of it. Cream's high voice came from the phone currently residing on the kitchen counter.

"You really spent all night in the hospital?!"  
"Apparently." Amy abandoned her brush on the worktop to do a better job at levelling out Butter Mountain. "He's all right now though, so you've no need to worry."

"I can't believe this! It's like you're living out one of mum's detective shows!"

"Well, it's a lot more frightening in real life." Amy popped the toast in her mouth and retrieved the phone and brush to continue sorting out her quills as she rushed for the door.

"I can imagine you must have been terrified!" Cream's voice squeaked loudly in her ear, reminding Amy she need to take the phone off loudspeaker. "So what are you doing now? Surely you're not going back there!"

She flinched and switched the phone back to it's more personal setting before tossing the brush onto her sofa. Cream was right. Why was she up and ready at eight in the morning if she didn't have to be anywhere? The Chaotix hadn't told her to be at the office, and there was no way she was going back to that shop!

However, she knew Espio was back home, and she really wanted to see how he was. She hesitated by the door, her toast slowly threatening to make its way to the floor if she didn't reach out and stop it. Would he even be up at this time if he was supposed to be resting? It was worth a check at least.

She removed the toast from her mouth and sighed at the closed door. "I think I'm going to pop to their office for a little while. You forget about all this for now and enjoy your trip out. I'll speak to you later."

"Okay! Send Mister Espio my well-wishes, too!" She heard Cheese chime in with her in the background.

"I shall," said Amy. "Goodbye."

She heard the line cut out before she could remove the phone from her ear.

Okay, so she was going to the office. To the office and not the shop. She was going to go _nowhere near_ the shop.

So why was she so nervous?!

She grabbed her bag and forced herself out of the door, down the stairs and outside whilst she hastily tried to finish her breakfast. She did a small double-take as the door clicked shut behind her. The traffic heading to the centre was backed up, standing at a complete standstill and blocking the crossing. This rarely ever happened. Something must have gone on further down. Giving one glance towards the head of the traffic jam and seeing nothing to tell her what had caused the anomaly, she trotted across between the cars as the signal beeped over the rumbling engines, following the immense traffic upstream all the way to the junction. It was only affecting the main roads as there was no sign of struggling traffic by the office.

She pressed the buzzer and it was answered almost immediately.

"Chaotix Detective Agency."

The voice didn't belong to Charmy like she was expecting. So Espio was clearly up and about. Her heart flipped in her chest and she cleared her throat, but her voice came out all wobbly regardless.

"It's Amy?" _Why the question?_ She face-palmed.

"Really?" He sounded surprised. "I wasn't expecting you. Come on up."

The door buzzed and the lock lifted with a click. She pushed the door open and hesitated in the doorway. She could always apologise and go home, but she'd come too far now to go back. It would only seem strange and she thought she'd been strange enough lately.

She entered the office and noted the empty desk. Espio was sat alone on the sofa with a book lying open on his lap. He looked up at her and gave a small smile.

"The others are out," he said, answering her unasked question. "They're planning to arrest Sasha and Clara."

"Oh!" She looked over her shoulder back into the dingy hallway. "Don't they need me?"

"Your part in this is over, we have all the information we need."

She looked back at him with a start. Over? The look of alarm must have been plain on her face because he looked as equally stunned as she felt.

"I'm surprised Vector hasn't told you yet," he said.

She made a non-committal noise as she stared at the hallway. No longer working for the Chaotix... Why did that thought make her feel so hollow?

"You know... you can come in and sit down," he said.

She nodded and let the door close behind her. She cast her eyes around the unkempt office, taking it all in as though it was the last time she'd ever see it. When she finally landed on Espio, he was watching her curiously, ignoring his open book.

She forced a cheerful smile. "I'm glad you seem to be doing well."

"I'm fine."

He returned her smile, meeting her eyes. Every nerve in her body seemed to freeze up under his gaze, rooting her to the spot. That familiar, warm feeling stirred in her stomach and she tore her eyes away from him, swallowing drily.

"I... tea!" She trotted over to the kitchenette. "I can make tea."

She didn't hear him say anything, but she needed to distract herself, and clattering around the kitchen – oddly enough the tidiest place in the office – seemed the best way to deal with this situation.

Only two days before, she'd been prepared to tell him how she felt but the moment had been snatched away from her. Now she was in the situation to do so, she didn't feel remotely prepared. She hadn't a clue how to go about it, ironic since she'd been well established as Sonic's number one fangirl for a chunk of her life and had certainly had the experience of making her feelings known. Somehow, this was completely different.

As she poured the hot tea into two teacups, the answer hit her.

She was worried she'd mess it up.

After being firmly rejected once before, she didn't want it to happen again.

That's why the situation with Sasha had bothered her so much. It was like watching the events of her sixteenth party unfold again, and this time _she'd_ been the one who'd handed over the girl's phone number. It had been under her own control. She didn't _have_ to do it.

She strolled back into the office and set the tea tray down on the table.

"You know it's not your fault, don't you?" said Espio.

"Huh?"

She looked up at him and blinked a couple of times.

"Me ending up in hospital," he explained. "It's not your fault."

"Oh." It all came rushing back like a tidal wave. She flopped into the sofa and put her face in her hands. "It _feels_ like it was my fault."  
"In what way is it your fault?"

"I gave you her number." She lowered her hands to look at him. "I told you about it."

"Who's to say she wouldn't have approached me herself?"

She stared at him for a moment as she let this sink in. There was always that possibility. Sasha wasn't exactly chained to the shop. She could have followed her to the office, or tracked him down some other way.

"Just be glad you were there," he said as he looked back down at his book. " _I_ am."

She picked up her teacup, trying not to spill it as her hand shook, and sipped at it, the warm liquid slowly helping to calm her rising nerves.

He gave her a sideways glance. "I mean, if you and Knuckles weren't there, then-"

"Don't!" She set her cup back down with a clatter and the room fell into silence.

She could feel him staring at her, but she couldn't bring herself to look at him. The sheer thought of what might have happened had they not been there tied her stomach in knots and made her tea taste rancid.

"I'm sorry," he muttered.

"It's fine, I just don't want to think about it. This case became very frightening and dangerous, and to be honest, I want to forget about it."

"Frightening and dangerous?" He raised an eyebrow. "Don't you normally fight massive, missile firing robots?"

"Yes, but you know they're dangerous from the get-go! Those two looked like perfectly innocent girls!"

He nodded and looked back down at his book. "Well, your part in this is over now. You can go back to doing what you normally do."

"And hopefully you can go back to solving less dangerous cases."

She watch the steam rise slowly from her cup, curling in the air before it vanished. The room had fallen into silence again, but she could feel his eyes on her causing her insides to flutter.

"Thank you for caring about me." His voice came out as a whisper, and she wasn't sure if he'd intended her to hear it or not.

Nevertheless, it drew her closer to him as she scooted along the sofa, and she felt him shift in his seat as he watched her intensely.

It was now or never, she told herself. She could get it off her chest. Finally tell him what she wanted to before this whole incident, before the opportunity was whipped out from beneath her again.

"Espio?"

She turned to face him and her eyes flew wide open as she found herself almost nose to nose with him. His yellow eyes reflected her surprise, but as they met hers, she felt herself slowly melt. She inched closer to him until her lips brushed against his and she heard his breath hitch in his throat.

Her heart sank as she thought she may have made an awful mistake. She opened her eyes again, bracing herself to apologise, but her words froze as he kept his eyes locked on hers. He placed his book on the arm of the sofa then raised his hand to brush through her quills before closing the distance between them again and catching her in a kiss.

It was only brief, however, as voices came from the hallway and he pulled back from her, his eyes going to the door.

"You'd think they'd have a better system for days like this!" boomed Vector.

"Well, unfortunately it can't be helped," said Knuckles, somewhat quieter.

The office door opened, and Amy became very aware that her face was probably a deeper pink than usual. She briskly ran her hands through her quills to straighten them and tried to position herself at a less suspicious distance from Espio.

However, her plan didn't work as Charmy let out a loud squeal of delight.

Vector looked at both of them in turn and cleared his throat as he turned back to the door. "Excuse me."

"Forget it! We need to go over this." Knuckles grabbed his arm and dragged him back into the office. "And since Amy's here, she can help us!"

"What's going on?" asked Espio.

"Traffic!" Vector said as he fell into his desk chair. "Roads are all clogged up because there's a riot at the shop! They've had to send out for a SWAT team!"  
"A riot?" Amy and Espio gasped in unison.

"What for?" Espio added.

"Shops shut," explained Vector. "The masses want their sweets but the girls have done a runner. No sign of them anywhere."  
Knuckles nodded at Charmy. "And neither of us can find them from the air either."

"Nu-uh!" The bee shook his head. "They've gone! And there's so many people on the street it's like looking for a needle in a haystack."

Vector grunted. "And with the traffic jammed up throughout the city, we can't get to the warehouse to track 'em down. My guess is that's where they've gone."

"If that's even a base of theirs," said Espio. "We never clarified that for certain."

The buzzer echoed through the office and the detectives fell into silence. They all looked at one another, and Vector counted them off on his fingers and shrugged.

Knuckles let out a flustered sigh and answered the intercom.

"Chaotix Detective Agency," he said.

A female voice crackled back at him. "Hello? I need your help."

"Okay, I'll buzz you up." He hit the button and the intercom died out.  
"Eh?" Vector looked like he was about to fall off his chair. "We've already got one case, Knux! What's goin' on?"

Knuckles raised an eyebrow. "You've never had more than one case?"

A small knock came from the door and everyone stared at it.

"Come in!" shouted Charmy.

The door opened, and standing in the doorway was a rather sullen looking snow leopard.

Vector screamed and leapt from his chair, pointing violently at her. "It's one of 'em! She's come to turn herself in!"

"I... I..." Clara glanced back into the hallway, considering whether or not she should stay or run and save herself from the enthusiastic crocodile. She looked back at Amy and her blue eyes filled with tears. "I really need your help!"  
"What for?" Vector crossed his arms. "'Cos your sister gone and poisoned my good friend and colleague here, and we're lookin' for the pair of you."

"I know." She took a small step into the office and clasped her hands together. "That's why I need your help. You see... none of this was meant to happen!" Tears flowed from her eyes and she let out a loud sob, covering her face with her hands.

"Erm..." Vector shifted on the spot and looked at the rest of the Chaotix. "What... what do I do with a crying girl?"

Knuckles edged closer to him and gave him a sideways glance. "Comfort her, I guess."

Vector shrugged and stepped over to her, giving her a nervous tap on the shoulder. "There, there."  
"Come on, boys!" Amy shot from the sofa and placed an arm around Clara. "She needs a sit down, a box of tissues and some tea!"

Vector pointed at Amy. " _This_ is why we need a girl!"

Charmy zipped into the air. "I'll make some tea!"  
"I'll get the tissues!" Vector ran towards the bathroom.

Espio stood up and gestured to the sofa. "Seat?"

...

The waste paper basket, which had been re-situated beside the coffee table, was quickly filling with tissues. Clara wound her current one in her hands as she stared at the steam rising from her tea cup. No one had said a word since the snow leopard had suddenly broken down in the middle of the office.

Vector cleared his throat, deciding now was the best time to break the silence.

"Are you ready to talk now?"

Clara looked up at him through bloodshot eyes and nodded slowly. "I... I think so."

"Go on," said Amy. "You said this wasn't meant to happen?"  
"It wasn't," Clara croaked. "Sasha's let all this get to her head. We only opened our own business to try and pay for our mother's operation. She's sick. We really want to help her, you see. To raise the money. We've always enjoyed making sweets, so we went with our strengths. However, there was no saying we'd make enough money in time. So we... asked for help."

Vector grunted and crossed his arms. "I'm already not liking the sound of this."  
"We didn't know what we were doing," she explained. "We were told it was harmless, that all it would do would encourage people to keep buying. I knew it was toxic in high doses but I didn't expect her to actually poison someone!"

She covered her face with both hands and sobbed heavily, her entire body jerking. Amy glanced at the others and placed her hand on the leopard's back.

"And what is this exactly?" Vector pressed.

"A combination of bright scarlet and lonely primrose," Clara choked out between sobs.

The Chaotix exchanged glances.

Vector crossed his arms and gave Espio a firm stare. "So it _was_ the both of them!"

"Those plants are very poisonous," said Charmy. "Even us bees have to be careful."

"I know. I'm so sorry," Clara gasped between sobs. "I don't know why she did it. I guess she got scared. We knew someone was poking around, that someone knew what we were up to." She took a deep breath and stared down at the tissue, tearing it into little pieces. "When Amy showed up asking for a job, it was obvious she'd been sent there with a purpose. She was being too cautious. Our alarm bells went off, and Sasha decided to follow her."

"Ack!" Vector almost fell off his seat. "You were followed?" He rounded on Amy. "When?!"

Amy's green eyes widened as she stared back at him. "I hadn't a clue!"

"It was after your first shift," Clara explained. "She followed you to this office. Then, when we saw you in the park with one of the detectives, that's when she formed her nasty plan. She never ran it by me. I wondered what she was up to, but I never expected her to-" She choked off and dabbed at her eyes, giving Espio a sideways glance. "I'm so sorry."

He waved her off. "It's not your fault."

"I should have stopped her. It's gone too far. I should have known when she got those guys involved that something shady was going on. It's gone to her head. It's not about... saving a life anymore. Is it?"

"I don't know." Vector scratched beneath his headphones. "Have you managed to pay for your ma's operation?"

Clara looked up at him and nodded. "Yes."  
"Then I'd say your assumption's right."

"What I want to know is who these guys are," said Knuckles. "It seems to have taken a personal route, and I saw someone come and collect her in the restaurant who may have been a little familiar."

"Eh?!" Vector snapped round to face him. "You never told me that!"

Knuckles waved at Espio. "I'm sorry, my mind was elsewhere at the time!"

"That would have been one of them," said Clara.

"Who?" the Chaotix chimed in unison.

"A group of mercenaries," Clara explained. "They're led by some weasel named Nack."

The detectives exchanged glances, each one developing a sour disposition.

"The Hooligans," said Espio.

Vector stood up and punched the air. "To the van!"

"It's currently lacking a wheel," said Knuckles.

"Oh... yeh..." Vector quickly checked his watch then ushered them to the door. "To the train station!"

...

 **Please R &R! =D**


	12. Warehouse Brawl

**EDIT - The one time I don't preview and it uploads as a total mess! I normally do because it's happened before! Thank you FFReader23 for pointing that out! I've removed the winking face I placed in my author's notes. Hopefully that will have fixed it XD**

 **A/N - I decided to keep the same update-day after all. Here is the final chapter! If you enjoyed this, you might like my Amy/Espio oneshot I submitted last year!**  
 **Tomorrow should, hopefully, see the start of a new fanfic! Pokemon fans might like it! Huge thanks to all who have read, reviewed, faved, followed or read quietly! =D You are all awesome!**  
 **Disclaimer - I do NOT own Sonic the Hedgehog or any of its characters!**

12 – Warehouse Brawl

The Chaotix, Amy and Clara crouched in a field, watching the closed warehouse door. A wagon was stationed behind it, hidden by a closely knit group of trees and bushes.

"Why are we hiding behind a wall?" Amy asked.

"Because they do it in movies," answered Vector.

Clara glanced at him. "I'm sorry. Are you really detectives?"

Vector growled under his breath.

"Why isn't she chained in cuffs?" Knuckles asked.

"Because we've nowhere to stow her," said Vector. "Normally I'd leave her in my van."

"Ooh!" Charmy buzzed. "Someone's coming!"

The group ducked behind the wall, and Vector peered over through a pair of binoculars. A distant rumble of a bike reverberated in the distance, growing louder as it moved towards them.

"Can you see anything?" Knuckles asked.

"No." Vector looked over at Espio. "Can you get closer?"

The chameleon slowly became invisible and vanished out of sight. There was a slight tap as he vaulted the wall, and Amy braced herself, straining her ears for any sign of what was going on on the other side.

The bike's engine blocked out all other noise as it pulled up on the other side of the wall. Vector ducked back down out of sight and leant with one ear against the wall. As the bike came to a stop, the engine noise died out, and voices reached their ears.

"I told you! You're not having any of that candy!"  
"Oh come on. Just one. One bar. One piece!"

The first speaker growled. "Can you shut him up before I do?"

"Just one little piece! A _gumdrop_!"

"No!"  
The shutter rattled and clanked, drowning out the bickering duo. Their voices faded away to a muffle, and Vector took the opportunity to peek over the wall again.

"They've gone inside," he said.

"I think that's fairly obvious," said Knuckles. "And it's them, I'm sure of it."

"It's definitely them," came Espio's voice above them.

Clara almost leapt out of her skin.

"So how do we get in?" Charmy asked.

"I could punch through the door?" Knuckles suggested.

"Leave it to me!" Amy whipped out her hammer and hopped over the wall, raising the hammer in a smooth arc and bringing it round into the sheet metal shutter. The metal was ripped open, sending fragments of it whizzing through the air and pattering onto the floor. She landed inside the warehouse between two stacks of sweet-smelling boxes, facing three rather surprised faces.

"Wow!" Bean the duck gave her a thumbs up. "Nice entrance! But it only deserves a B. Not enough explosions."

Nack snorted and aimed his gun at her. "I'd give it an F, 'cos she landed on the wrong turf!"

"Get down!"

Amy felt herself shoved to the ground. A silver star whizzed over her head and struck Nack's gun, sending the bullet into the ceiling and the gun spiralling from his hand to strike the back wall. She looked back up to find Espio stood over her. He offered his hand and tugged her back to her feet, but he didn't take his eyes off the weasel.

"Pointing yer gun at a girl?" Vector tutted. "Just how low are you gonna stoop, Nack?"

"I thought it wouldn't be long until the Moronix got involved," Nack snorted. "So she didn't kill you then? It's what we paid her for! Oi!" He rounded on a stack of boxes.

Sasha stepped out from behind it, glancing nervously from the Chaotix to the Hooligans and back. She gingerly handed Nack his gun which he snatched back off her and aimed at Vector.

"Guess I need to do my own dirty work, eh?"

"Ooh! Ooh!" Bean leapt from foot to foot, pulling out a bomb. "Let me!"

The bomb arced through the air and the Chaotix parted, knocking Amy into the floor again. It struck what was left of the shutter and exploded, the impact blowing them into the boxes and scattering them, creating a landslide of cardboard and sweets which partially buried both groups.

She pushed herself up and tugged her hammer out from where it had lodged itself in the fragrant mountain.

There was currently no sign of Nack other than his voice as he shouted commands at Bark to hurry up. The large polar bear was trying to dig him out of the mound of boxes. He pulled the weasel free and frowned at Bean.

Bean shrugged. "What? I thought that went quite well."

Vector grunted beside her as he pushed boxes off himself and pulled Charmy back out by his leg.

The little bee wobbled in the air. "I don't think I like those pancakes..."

"Pull yerself together, Charmy!" Vector told him. "I need you to distract that duck while I deal with Nack!"

"Okay!" Charmy span towards Bean stinger first.

Bean let out an exclamation of surprise and ducked, sending Charmy over his head into the brick wall.

This gave Vector enough time to run at Nack while he was desperately fumbling for his gun, lost amongst the boxes. But instead, the crocodile collided with Bark, receiving a firm fist to the jaw.

Chaos erupted in the warehouse as Knuckles and Vector tried to deal with the silent polar bear and Espio and Charmy tried to deal with Bean and his bombs. Amy stood aside with Clara, watching aghast. Never before had she seen so much madness. The warehouse rocked with the explosions from the duck's bombs, grunts and yells rose up from those currently dealing with a mass fist-fight, and Nack stood amongst it all with Sasha helplessly turning over boxes in a search for his gun. But there was no reaching him.

If she could only get close enough...

"Argh! Here it is!" Nack wrenched his gun free from a mound of colourful chocolates and aimed it... blindly at the constantly moving rabble. "Hold still!"

"Move it, Amy!" Espio shouted at her as he dodged one of Bean's bombs. "You're a sitting duck!"  
"I resent that statement!" Bean screamed. "Here! Take this! And that! And this!"

A flurry of bombs struck the wall, sending dust and rubble everywhere.

Amy choked as she ran blindly through the warehouse, stumbling over boxes as she tried to reach Nack in all the confusion. The wind left her body as something struck her hard in the stomach, sending her hammer spiralling to the ground. She looked up to see Sasha's leering face.

The leopard grabbed her around the neck and pulled her aside, and cold metal pressed against her head.

"Enough games," Sasha purred. "You've done enough snooping around."

"Why are you doing this?" Amy squeaked.

"It's _business_ ," said Sasha. "Do you know how many shops we've beaten? We've enough money to start our own franchise! Soon enough, there'll be a Sugar Snow in every major city, and you aren't ruining it for me."  
The gun jerked back from her head and Sasha let out a yowl of pain. She released Amy and span on the spot to find her own gun pointed back at her. The leopard raised her hands instinctively and took a step back from Clara.

"Stop this," Clara hissed.

"You're making a stupid mistake!" Sasha growled.

"You both are!" shouted Amy. "What good does this do? What's the point of all this?!"

Clara and Sasha stared back at her.

"Money, kid," said Nack. "You're standing on money."

She felt his gun press against her back. Before he could pull the trigger, she span round and brought her hammer into his torso. He let out a grunt as he flew back from her and hit the solid wall. She span again, striking Bark with her hammer and sending the polar bear flying into his comrade. Vector, Espio, Charmy and Knuckles stared dumbfounded as she rounded on Bean.

The duck laughed as he skipped back, juggling several bombs like a court jester.

"Sayonara, sweetheart!"

With a flourish, he flicked them one after the other towards her. Her hammer let out a series of little pops as it struck each one and sent them back towards him and his friends. They hit the wall, creating a chain of explosions and sending the Hooligans flying through the air to vanish into a field of lonely primrose.

Vector stood shielding his eyes as he watched in fascination.

"Whoa, Amy! That was some A-class work right there!"  
Espio crossed his arms and nodded. "If you want to help us out more often, you have my vote."

"Mine too!" cheered Charmy.

Knuckles huffed, but she could see a smile playing at his lips. "I like to think I softened that polar bear up for you a bit."

Amy felt her face flush and she looked over at the Chaotix. "You... you want me to help you more often?"

"Sure!" Vector grinned. "You've been a huge help!"

Charmy pointed at the two leopard girls. "I think we're forgetting about the bigger picture here."

"Oh right. Yeh." Vector moved over to them.

Clara had Sasha pinned against the wall with her gun. She lowered it as Vector took the leopard's arm and fastened a pair of cuffs around her wrists. He did the same to Clara as she offered her hands.

"I'm taking you both to the station," he said. "I think we've proven you've been using poisons to trick the masses into thinking your sweets are top-notch, not to mention almost killing one of my detectives."

Sasha tutted as he grabbed her upper arm to steer her along, and she kept her eyes on the ground, defeated.

Espio hung back as the others left the warehouse and looked down at Amy. He gave her a smile and reached out to take her hand before following them back out onto the dirt trail. Vector came to a sudden stop as he looked up and down the path.

"Argh! No van!" He pulled his phone from his pocket. "This time I'm calling for a police car!"

...

"Whew!" Vector fell into his desk chair. "I'm glad all that's over!"  
Amy copied him as she fell back onto the sofa between Espio and Knuckles with an audible sigh. The traffic was certainly better than it had been that morning since it turned out everyone was now getting the train to avoid it, leaving the Chaotix crammed like sardines between standing commuters.

"What will happen to them now?" Amy asked.

"Well, I can't speak for Sasha. She'll likely get a life sentence. As for Clara, her assistance in turning her sister in and helping us may reduce her sentence somewhat."

Amy felt a wave of relief flood through her. She'd been a little worried about Clara. The snow leopard had found herself caught up in something frightening and dangerous she really didn't want to be in.

"I'm just surprised the Hooligans were behind it all," said Knuckles.

Espio snorted. "What I can't believe is that they roped two girls into their toxic plan."

"I hope the next investigation is less dangerous," said Charmy.

"Don't you worry yer little head," said Vector. "I found a note stuffed through the door on our way in about a missing engagement ring. Doesn't exactly have 'poison' written all over it, does it?"

Espio frowned at him. "Neither did the sweet shop at first."

Vector chuckled and dropped the note on his desk as he reached for the phone. "I think this calls for celebratory pizza!"

"I'll stay for that," said Knuckles, "then I'm going home."

"I think I'll head back now," said Amy.

"Nah!" Vector paused mid-dial to fire her a glance. "Stay! We'll order one you like."

"I'd love to," she said. "But I'm exhausted. I need to get some sleep."  
"Okay, okay." He chuckled. "You get your rest. We'll see ya tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

Espio raised an eyebrow. "The case is over, Vector."

The crocodile stared at the desk with the phone still held to his ear. He picked up the new note and read over it silently before setting it down again.

"Huh." He scratched his jaw then finished dialing the phone.

Amy stared at him for a moment then pushed herself from the seat. "I'll be seeing you then. You know where I am if you want me."

"Amy?"

She froze at the door and looked back at Vector. He wagged an envelope at her.

"Your pay cheque," he said.

"Oh! Thank you." She took it and popped it in her bag, then glanced around at the others in the room with a smile. "Good bye."

"Bye, Amy!" shouted Charmy over Knuckles' more quiet farewell.

Vector waved her off and started talking into the phone.

She let the door close behind her and trotted down the stairs. When she got out into the street, the door faltered behind her as Espio slipped out and closed it quietly.

"I thought you were ordering pizza?" she asked.

"I'll be back in time for that." He turned to her and smiled. "You didn't think I was going to let you walk back on your own did you?"

She felt her face heat up and looked away from him.

He placed an arm around her shoulders and led her away from the office. A smile spread across her face and she moved into him.

"I've really enjoyed helping you," she said.

"I think we've all enjoyed having you around."

"Well... if you need anything else," she looked up at him, "let me know."

He made a thoughtful noise and paused as he checked the road was clear before steering her across it.

"I think there is one thing." He flashed her a smile. "I believe I was on a date with the wrong girl."

She laughed.

"What are you doing next Saturday?" he asked.

"Nothing."

He closed his eyes and smiled. "Then I think I can pick you up at eleven and we can have a nice day out."

She grinned. "I look forward to it!"

They reached her gate and he stopped to open it. "Here we are. Nice and safe, and I can be back in time for pizza."

"Thank you." She gave him a small smile. "Good night."

She thought that might be it. A quick goodnight and see her through the door, but instead he moved over to her and placed his hand on her waist, pulling her towards him. His lips pressed against hers, stirring up flutters in her stomach again. She reached up and placed her arms around his neck, returning his kiss. When he pulled apart from her, he brushed his hand over her quills and took a step back.

"Good night." He gave her a smile and moved away towards the traffic signal.

Her legs had become jelly. She had to take a moment to steady herself on the gate. When her strength had come back, she fumbled for her card key and almost skipped over to the door.

A quick text to Cream satisfied the rabbit that she'd talk to her tomorrow. Then she remembered all the bugs in her house. Maybe she could enlist Cream and Cheese to help her find them and remove them all, although they would likely not be active at the moment.

After a quick meal, she fell back into her bed and was just dozing off to sleep when her phone beeped. She groggily picked it up and saw the name 'Espio' across her screen.

Her heart flipped into her throat and she sat bolt upright as she read the message through a second time.

' _Vector says we need a girl's help with this new case. See you Monday, Detective Amy._ '

...

 **I hope you enjoyed! =D Please R &R!**


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